Burnet girls basketball performs well at tourney

CAPTION: Sophomore guard Maycee Floyd had a solid performance during the win against Brazoswood. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Burnet High School girls basketball team went 2-2 at the Fredericksburg Tournament Dec. 11-13 after losing to Brownwood 44-28 Dec. 9.

The Lady Dawgs defeated Brazoswood 51-25 and Fort Worth Parker-Tarrant HomeSchool 51-44 and lost to Stephenville 59-31 and Christoval 76-21.

“The tournament was a good tournament,” head coach Kim Payten said.

Christoval left an impression on the coach.

“I watched them on film and I thought we could maybe win that game,” she said. “But boy was I mistaken. They’re good for a Class 2A team; they’re really good. But they’re peaking. I talked to their coach a little bit, who said they’re peaking.”

Brazoswood is a member of District 24-6A.

“I kind of thought we might be in trouble,” the coach said. “But the kids just stepped up, and they played well. We executed well on offense. We’ve kind of struggled offensively just getting shots to fall.”

She credited sophomore guard Maycee Floyd for setting the tone thanks to her seven steals that led to 14 points.

“She had a great game,” Payten said.

Though Burnet lost to Stephenville for the second time, Payten noted they lost the first time was 65-15.

“Going into that game, my goal was just for us to be better,” she said. “And we were, we were solid. We played them well. So I was very proud of them. You can see the growth that we have.” 

Going into the game, the coach sensed some nervousness from her players.

“I told them, ‘Hey, we don’t need to look at the scoreboard,'” Payten said. “‘We just need to do better than we did the last time – that’s our goal. I want to win. I know you want to win, but we need to erase that right now. We don’t even need to think back because again, none of this matters. This is not the game that matters for anything.'”

The basketball gods were on board, too, because officials had trouble with the scoreboard so they score was kept by hand.

“They ended up coming out of their press because we were breaking it very solid, and so I was very proud of this,” the coach said. “They never got frazzled. During that game, they just kept their cool and so it frazzled the Stephenville team and the coaches. I think they were a little frazzled as well, because we were a different team for sure than they played the first time.” 

The Lady Dawgs led the PT Warriors throughout the contest though there was a moment when they trailed by a point but got the lead right back.

“They were good, they could shoot – all of them could shoot, they were scrappy,” Payten said of the Warriors. “We held our own. It was a close game, but we held it together and got the dub.” 

Senior post Wrigley Mulhollan was named to the all-tournament team and Burnet’s Most Valuable Player.

“The coaches voted on who they thought were the all-tournament and the MVPs of the team,” Payten said. “I was happy for Wrigley that she got that because she deserves it. When I rest her, because I don’t do it very often, our kids miss her out on the floor. She’s going to be really hard to replace in the coming years. She talks them through things if they’re on the floor.”

Though the Lady Dawgs didn’t beat Brownwood, Payten said she continues to see the growth they need for District 24-4A play.

“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Payten said. “After the Stephenville game, I told the girls, ‘I am proud of you.’ And they were like, ‘But we didn’t win.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t care. From where we started playing them the first time until this point, we’ve gotten better. And this was proof. There’s no better proof than that.”

The Lady Dawgs will host Fredericksburg Tuesday, Dec. 16, with the subvarsities playing at 5 p.m. and teh varsity at 6:30 p.m.