Burnet girls basketball fights back from double-digit deficit against Jarrell
CAPTION: Burnet senior Grace Gates hits one of her three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter against Jarrell in a furious comeback. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
The Burnet High School girls basketball team lost to Jarrell 39-37 Jan. 17 in a District 24-4A battle to drop to 1-2.
The Lady Cougars led the Lady Dawgs 11-9 after the first period and 19-17 at the break but outscored Burnet 13-4 in the third stanza for a 32-21 advantage headed into the final quarter.
But instead of accepting the outcome, the Lady Dawgs went to work. By the end, they had come within a bucket of sending the game into overtime.
“We made a run and almost made up the deficit,” head coach Rick Gates said. “We struggled to execute sometimes on offense. We had some lapses and a few turnovers that led to transition plays for them.”
On the flip side, Jarrell scored in the single digits in two quarters, especially the all-important fourth period. The Lady Cougars scored seven to the Lady Dawgs’ 16 thanks to two 3-pointers from senior guard Grace Gates. She finished the contest with 11 points.
Junior center Zaria Solis led the Lady Dawgs with 18 points.
“Zaria played well,” the coach said. “I’m sure she had a lot of rebounds.”
He pointed out the Lady Dawgs’ defense kept them within striking distance for the victory.
“Holding them to 39 points was enough (for a win),” the coach said. “Our offense isn’t where we need it to be. We ran our sets well, and we’re looking for the right people to get the ball to them. We didn’t execute our passes well, but we were looking at the right places.”
The Lady Dawgs were without junior forward MaeSyn Gay, who suffered a season-ending injury.
“We talked to the team about continuing to work hard and making adjustments and trying to win as many district games as possible,” Gates said. “We’re making some adjustments and some of our players are having to play more minutes and doing things they weren’t doing earlier this season.”
The Lady Dawgs will have their first district home game Friday, Jan. 20, when they welcome Lago Vista at 6:15 p.m. It’s the first of four consecutive home contests.
The second is the Burnet County Showdown against Marble Falls Tuesday, Jan. 24, at The Doghouse. The Lady Mustangs are atop of the district standings at 3-1 followed by Lampasas and Jarrel at 2-1, and Burnet is fourth at 1-2.
Still, there’s plenty of basketball left to be played, Gates said.
“We did some good things,” he said. “We still have some adjustments and growing pains to get through.”
Watch videos on Highland Lakes sports by going to Fierro’s YouTube channel and searching for The Broad Podcaster. Please like, subscribe and share.
