Girls Hoops Fought to Keep Close, Finishing Impressive Season
By Zach Warner
The Southlake Journal
Sometimes, final scores and unceremonious finishes can be deceiving.
On paper, the Carroll girls basketball team's season ended with a 66-45 loss to No. 4 Cedar Hill in the area round on Feb. 19. It might also appear as merely another second-round exit by a program that has had a hard time dealing with other area powers in the playoffs.
But the Lady Dragons' final game was closer than the numbers indicated, and the season provided glimpses of future greatness despite a tough area-round draw and early playoff loss.
"I think we had a great run this year," said Carroll coach Teri Morrison, who led the Lady Dragons to a 23-10 record and a 6-5A championship in her first year at the program's helm. "We got a taste of what we need to do to win this round.
"A lot of times on the floor [against Cedar Hill], you saw four [Carroll] sophomores. They saw what a big environment's like."
Morrison's team is set to return some young players that gained invaluable experience this season, including sophomore guard Sierra Maykus (7.8 points per game), Carroll's top returning scorer. Three other sophomores, a freshman and three juniors are also coming back.
The Lady Dragons' biggest loss is the departure of their three senior posts -- leading scorer Deborah Chandler (12.3 points, 5.1 rebounds), Christie Groh (11.8 ppg, 8.9 rpg) and Mary Louise Morrison (6.1 ppg, 4.1 rpg). The trio provided a serious inside threat.
Inside shots were tougher to come by against Cedar Hill (23-6), however, but Carroll fought to keep it close in the third. The Lady Dragons trimmed the Lady Longhorns advantage to seven, 44-37, but that's as close as it would get. Cedar Hill went on a 14-4 run and never looked back.
"We were down by 10 [early in the fourth] and we had to start gambling on defense," Morrison said. "[Cedar Hill got] some easy shots down there.
"These kids ... felt they had a chance to win. I think about in that last minute, it kind of hit them. They'd given a valiant effort, but Cedar Hill just played better than us."
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