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No Panic: Plano overcomes slow start to cruise past Sachse
BY Devin Hasson, dhasson@starlocalnews.com
SACHSE -- Plano Senior's team bus ran into traffic on the way to Sachse High School on Tuesday, causing a slight delay in its arrival.
The Lady Wildcats started the game in much the same fashion.
It took nearly four minutes for Plano to register its first field goal, but once they got going there wasn't much Sachse could do to stop the Lady Wildcats.
"Our first half was good," said Lynn Meger, Plano head coach. "I had some kids with foul trouble and I thought my subs came in and did a really good job. We adjusted well."
For some teams, there might have been anxious moments early on as Sachse freshman Courtney Blankenship scored four quick points and Monica Dorsey's layup gave the Lady Mustangs an 8-1 lead. Rather than call timeout, Meger opted to let her team play through and that proved to be the right call.
Afunugo broke the scoring drought via an inside basket with 4:10 left in the first and the floodgates opened, as they outscored Sachse, 40-10, during the next 12 minutes.
"Right now what I am trying to do is get them to think and react themselves," Meger said. "I probably should have called a timeout but I just wanted to see if someone would step up and be frustrated too. I thought (senior) Hayley Wray stepped up and my post (Afunugo) stepped up and took charge. (Senior) Binna Kim has been doing a great job of leading verbally and I need them all to be more verbal and for me to be less verbal, so we are just going to have to learn to do that."
Even with the foul trouble in the post, the Lady Mustangs had no answer for Plano's interior game.
After Blankenship converted a three-point play to give Sachse an 11-9 lead late in the first, Afunugo scored eight consecutive points inside and that opened up a 3-pointer by freshman Yasmine Samadzada that gave the Lady Wildcats a 20-11 lead.
Plano's defense was stifling in the second, holding the Lady Mustangs to just 1-of-13 shooting and forcing seven turnovers. And there were few second chances to be had as Afunugo, who had 11 rebounds, and senior Lucy Gentry, who had seven points and 13 rebounds, continually swept the glass.
"I thought Lucy came in and played well; she played physical and big," Meger said. "I've got four posts I feel like I can play and the inside game made a difference."
Sachse cut the deficit to single digits when Cynthia Matthews hit a baseline jumper to make it 24-15, but the Lady Wildcats responded immediately as junior Kylee Guthrie's 3-pointer started a 13-0 run to blow the game open at 37-15.
Plano shot just 37.7 percent for the night (20-of-53), but was 9-of-17 from the floor during the pivotal second-quarter run.
With a comfortable lead, the Lady Wildcats took time to experiment in the third and Sachse took advantage.
Lorian Benjamin had four points, Alexis Rene and Moriah Reed scored inside and Leah Crouse knocked down a trey as part of an 11-2 run to close the quarter to get back to within 49-33.
But while Plano did not regain its shooting touch in the fourth, it did get back to the basics defensively, allowing only six points to prevent the Lady Mustangs from harboring any serious hopes of a comeback in a 54-39 Lady Wildcats' win.
"In the third quarter we worked on something we had not practiced and when you do that, you see what you don't pick up very well," Meger said. "Then we went back to what we practiced in the fourth and they didn't score. We've got a lot of room to work and a lot of things for me to notice, so we'll work on getting better from here."
That work continues at 7:30 p.m. Friday on the road against Irving MacArthur.
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