Lady Bulldogs girls lose second half title to Merkel

By MARK WILSON / Staff Writer

Merkel held off a late challenge from the Wylie girls as the Lady Badgers captured the second-half title in District 6-3A with a 42-40 victory Monday night at Kimbrell Arena.

The Merkel girls (19-10) will now take on first-half winner Ballinger (25-5) tonight at 6 p.m. in the Brownwood High School gym to decide the first and second place seedings in the state playoffs. The winner will advance to the bi-district round of the playoffs against Bowie, the District 5-3A runner-up. Bowie (24-8) defeated Childress 59-58 in double overtime Monday night for the runner-up spot. The loser of the Ballinger-Merkel contest will take on District 5-3A champion Henrietta (27-2) in bi-district.

The loss knocked the Lady Bulldogs out of the playoff picture. Wylie and Merkel had tied for first place in the second half at 6-1, and they also finished tied in the first half at 4-3.

"It's been a great series between us and Wylie," said first-year Merkel coach Bill Stockton, who got a game-high 17 points from senior post Leslie Jacobs. "You can't say it comes down to who wants it more, because every game comes down the wire."

Wylie coach Randy Courtney said that not making the playoffs was a hard blow after the way his team improved in the second half of district play.

"It's very disappointing for us to fight back and do as well as we did in the second half. It's hard," Courtney said.

Neither team was particularly sharp offensively. Merkel owned a 7-6 edge at the end of the first quarter, and Wylie didn't reach double figures (15-10) until the 3:41 mark in the second quarter.

"Every time we play (versus Merkel), the games are fairly ugly," Courtney said.

Stockton said his team had to play man-to-man defense and not let Wylie's shooters take aim at will. Wylie's Meredith Ripley, the Lady Bulldogs' second-leading scorer, didn't score from the field and finished with two points. And Stephanie Anders, who leads the Lady Bulldogs in scoring, had just 10 points.

"I just told the kids I knew Wylie has been playing against a lot of zones, and they've been shooting the ball real well," Stockton said. "We knew we couldn't sit in a zone and we had to get in their face."

Stockton said his Lady Badgers shouldn't have a problem playing on back-to-back nights because of their depth.

"We used a lot of kids, and I've got confidence in every one of them," Stockton said. "We're never tired at the end of the game. We can play man defense a full 32 minutes."

Wylie led for most of the first quarter, and gained a 16-15 lead with 37 seconds left in the second quarter. But Merkel's Jamie Dean hit a shot with 15 seconds showing to give the Lady Badgers a 15-14 edge at intermission.

Wylie went back on top for the last time with 22-21 left in the third quarter, but McKinsey Laird bombed home a 3-point bucket with 2:39 left in the quarter to give Merkel the lead back, 24-22.

The Lady Badgers led by as many as 8 points three times in the final quarter, but Wylie battled back to tie it 40-all with 41 seconds left in the game on wide open eight-foot jump shot by Kara Frazier. After Laird made a basket inside, Wylie called timeout with just under 10 seconds remaining.

Anders' inbounds pass intended for Ripley was too high and went out of bounds. Merkel's Jodie Hellums missed two free throws and Wylie got the rebound, but Frazier's 3-point shot try just before the final buzzer was short.

Girls

WYLIE (40) - Kara Frazier 1 0-0 2, Jessica Carnes 3 2-4 8, Mandy Stark 3 2-4 9, Kendra Deberry 1 0-0 2, Erika Wilson 1 3-4 5, Carrie Naylor 1 0-0 2, Meredith Ripley 0 2-2 2, Stephanie Anders 4 1-3 10, Totals 14 10-17 40.

MERKEL (42) - McKinsey Laird 3 2-4 9, Jamie Dean 1 2-2 4, Jeanette Langford 1 1-2 4, Jodie Hellums 0 1-4 1, Rebecca Cochran 0 0-0 0, April Fisher 2 0-0 4, Kelli Cunningham 1 0-0 2, Jamie Hellums 0 1-3 1, Trish Hicks 0 0-0 0, Leslie Jacobs 5 7-9 17, Totals 13 14-24 42.

3-point goals - Wylie 2 (Stark 1, Anders 1); Merkel 2 (Laird 1, Langford 1). Fouls - Wylie 16, Merkel 20. Fouled out - none. Technicals - Carnes, Jacobs.

Records - Wylie 17-16; Merkel 19-10.