Canyon girls can’t overcome tough start in Class 4A title game loss to Waco LaVega

After so many textbook performances in the myriad of state championship games in the program’s illustrious history, maybe the Canyon Lady Eagles were finally due to fall short in the ultimate game thanks to the law of averages.

In a rarity Saturday night in the UIL Class 4A state championship game at San Antonio’s Alamodome, the Lady Eagles never led against defending state champion Waco LaVega. Despite pulling to within a point early in the fourth quarter, the Canyon mystique didn’t fully kick in, as LaVega held on for a 45-36 victory, handing the Lady Eagles a rare championship game defeat.

Canyon finished the season 30-7.

LaVega (32-11) scored the first seven points of the game as the Lady Eagles never found an early offensive rhythm. The Lady Pirates led by as many as 13 in the second quarter before Canyon chipped away and trailed 26-17 at halftime.

“I’m extremely proud of our kids and how we battled,” said Canyon coach Tate Lombard, making his second state championship appearance in four years at the school. “You’re playing the defending champion and it showed resolve after getting off to a bad start and giving ourselves a chance in the second half. It shows the fight these kids have. We just ran up a little short.”

In the third quarter, Canyon cut the margin to 33-30 when sophomore Kambrie Graser hit a 3-pointer with 18 seconds left in the quarter.

That momentum seemed to carry over into the fourth quarter when Jaylee Moss hit a pair of free throws 15 seconds into the quarter to cut it to 33-32. But the Lady Eagles were unable to overcome that point.

LaVega’s Kiyleah Parr then hit a 3-pointer and scored on a layup 19 seconds later on a turnover to make it 38-32 and scored on another layup later to make it 40-32, giving the Lady Pirates a cushion.

Canyon’s Addison Cunningham scored on a layup to cut it to 40-36 with 1:36 remaining in the game. However, the Lady Eagles couldn’t score again.

Moss led Canyon with 12 points while Graser and Sydnee Winfrey had 10 apiece. Other than that, though, the Lady Eagles scored only four points.

“They’re really good defensively and they have good help side defenders,” Moss said. “They’re really tough to score against but we found some moments. We just couldn’t score on some opportunities.”

The best news for the Lady Eagles is that Moss, Graser and Winfrey will all be back next season (Moss and Winfrey are juniors). That means another championship trip isn’t unlikely.

“This is something we always expect from a Canyon team to have the ability to do something like this,” Lombard said. “But in December to say it was going to happen, I really didn’t think it was going to. The last month and a half of the season, we played as good as anybody.”

Parr had a game-high 21 points for LaVega and Alaysia Gude had 12.