Bushland guard Ellie Frye goes up over a Childress defender for a layup during a Class 3A Bidistrict game at Canyon High School on Tuesday night. [Tom Carver/ Press Pass Sports]
There weren’t a lot of style points to give out Tuesday evening at Canyon High’s Joe Lombard Gymnasium in the Class 3A bidistrict girls games involving Canadian and Bushland.
At the end of the evening, though, both teams were headed for the next round, giving the top two teams from District 1-3A a sweep.
No. 1 Canadian opened the night in expected fashion, as the top-ranked Lady Cats rolled to a 56-33 victory over Abernathy. Bushland, the No. 2 seed from the district, had a tighter game, but took over in the second half against Childress to pull out a 43-31 win.
All that mattered at the end of the night was the bottom line, and that’s what looked best for both teams, especially what amounted to a dominant performance for Canadian.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Canadian coach Aaron Marks said. “Give Abernathy credit. I thought they played hard. We had a week off and we looked like it. Good teams find a way to win when they’re not playing at their best and we were far from our best tonight.”
Canadian seemed eager to show why it entered the game with the top ranking in the first half. The Lady Cats never trailed as their 28-16 halftime lead was their biggest advantage of the first two quarters.
The Lady Cats (32-1) scored the first eight points of the game to establish the tone and led by as many as nine in the first quarter. Abernathy cut the lead to two points early in the second quarter but was unable to take the lead.
Mattie Boyd was a force inside for Canadian in the first half, leading the Lady Wildcats with 11 points. That was just a taste of what Boyd provided, as she scored a game-high 26 points.
“It’s obviously what we’re trying to do but at some point some others are going to have to step up and make some plays,” said Marks of getting the ball to Boyd. “There will enough bodies at some point to throw at her.”
Briley Merket was a complement to Boyd from the outside, scoring 16 points, including four 3-pointers. Merket scored 10 points in the second half.
Kailey Gerber was the lone scorer in double figures for Abernathy (16-17) with 10 points.
The Lady Wildcats will head to the area round Thursday at 6:30 p.m., playing at, ironically, Bushland, where they’ll face Littlefield.
Bushland (23-7) won’t be home but will also be moving on to area, facing Denver City at 6 p.m. Thursday at Floydada. The Lady Falcons had to grind it out to beat Childress (18-15) and much like Canadian, they came to life offensively in the second half to move to the area round.
“We played ugly,” Bushland coach Ty Mayfield said. “Right now that doesn’t matter. An ugly win’s as good as a pretty win. I’d rather have that any day than a loss. We’ve played some good basketball but that wasn’t our best game offensively, but I thought defensively we played our tails off and that was the difference.”
Bushland only trailed twice in the opening minutes, and after taking a 9-4 first quarter lead, never trailed. Both teams struggled mightily offensively as the Lady Falcons led 18-15 at halftime.
In the second half, though, Emma Troxell, Bushland’s leading scorer, finally got going. Troxell had seven points in the third quarter as Bushland took a 33-19 lead at the end of the quarter, which proved to be enough cushion in the fourth quarter.
Troxell scored 13 of her game-high 15 points in the second half. Ellie Frye added 10 points for Bushland.
“In the first half we stood around and watched those two instead of moving, cutting, getting the ball and reversing and we were really impatient,” Mayfield said. “I think in the second half we did a lot better job of getting the court spread and giving them room to operate. Emma’s sick and she didn’t have her best game and we were not getting her good looks as much in the first half.”
Childress struggled even more offensively, although the Lady Bobcats stayed alive with four 3-pointers in the second half. However, nobody scored in double figures, as Chloe Teichelman led the way with eight points.
“We had a feeling that it was going to be a low-scoring game,” Childress coach Shannon Fisher said. “I felt like defensively we did our jobs and our responsibilities. Offensively, at the end of the day we didn’t execute what we were supposed to execute to attack their defense. The confidence wasn’t where it needed to be to attack that zone defense.”
Bidistrict scores
Canadian 13 28 43 56
Abernathy 7 16 23 33
C— Mattie Boyd 26, Briley Merket 16. A— Kailey Gerber 10, Aubrey Thiel 7. Records: Canadian 32-1, Abernathy 16-17.
Childress 4 15 19 31
Bushland 9 18 33 43
C— Chloe Teichelman 8, Corbin Daniel 7, Aspen Lomax 7. B— Emma Troxell 15, Ellie Frye 10. Records:Childress 18-15, Bushland 23-7.
Class 1A
Anton 1 3 5 8
Nazareth 17 43 57 74
A— Goree 4. N— Peterson 13, Corrales 12, Schilderink 12. Records: Nazareth 21-11.
Miami 10 18 34 49
White Deer 12 27 38 46
M— Hartwig 23, Hurst 8. Records: Miami 19-7; White Deer 13-16.
Wildorado 5 14 24 29
Springlake-Earth 15 28 34 49
W— Ragland 15 E— Toscanini 16, Beerwinkle 16.
Records: Wildorado 11-18; Springlake-Earth 16-7.
TAPPS 1-3A
Temple Christian 3 5 9 16
San Jacinto 8 32 39 53
T— Rodriguez 7, Davis 5. SJCA— Lane 20, Brabham 9, Dawson 9. Records: Temple Christian 2-6; San Jacinto 20-8, 6-2.
