Lady Eagles basketball competed in the Region semifinal game against Bullard on Friday night at 8:00 pm, going on to win the game with a final score of 36-24.

The game started off slowly with only a 4 point lead before Bullard started putting a few points on the board, and at the end of the first quarter, the Bullard Lady Panthers were ahead 9-8. However, the Lady Eagles put a bit more effort into the 2nd quarter, working the defense and pushing back against the Panthers.  Despite multiple attempts in the first half, there were quite a few failed goal attempts by both offenses.  Towards the end of the half, the Eagles worked the play action, but ended with two failed goal attempts to tie the score at the half 15-15.

“We needed to get the lead and make some defensive stops,” Assistant Coach Sammye Townsend explains after speaking to the team at halftime.

The Eagles came out to play the second half with a little more fire and a little more accuracy on goal.  With 2:11 to go, Eagles fouled Bullard’s #22 Abby Ehron on a 3-point attempt, but she could not capitalize on the opportunity.  Eagles settled in to play ball and move around on the court, and finally junior Gabby Standifer (33) put up 3 points from the outside, bringing the score to 24-18 with Argyle leading at the end of the third quarter.

“I think our biggest challenge as a team is just we always have to be ready to play and not get behind,” junior Gabby Standifer said. “We need to get ahead and keep up the intensity.”

In the final quarter, Argyle started off just moving the ball around, and senior Vivian Gray (12) put up a layup after a full 2 minutes of controlling the ball, bringing the score to 26-18 after a foul by Bullard.  After a time-out, Argyle came back on the floor and Sophie Betzhold put up another 3 points from the arc bringing the score to 29-18.  A missed Bullard attempt brought the Eagles back to the free-throw line for two more taking the score to 31-18.  Bullard finally hit on an outstide attempt bringing the score to 31-21 with 3 minutes left in the game. With Bullard’s high foul count of 7 vs Argyle’s 3 the game began to wind down to the last minutes. And then another foul by Bullard on Gray added 2 more at the line, bringing the score to 33-21 with 1:55 left. The Lady Eagles ended the Region semifinal game with a final score of 36-24.

“We played a great team tonight,” Townsend said. “They played with a lot of poise. It was just a matter of who made the fear of mistakes and who could make the most baskets in the end.”

Junior Sophie Betzhold contributed greatly in the second half of the game adding multiple points to the board and looks forward to tomorrow’s game.

“I think we really have to pick up the intensity for this last game,” Betzhold said. “I think we just need to pick it up because, we’ve played Ranchview before and it was a tough game and beating a team twice is pretty hard.”

The Eagles advance to the region final game on Saturday at 2:00 pm against Carrollton Ranchview at Texas A&M Commerce Fieldhouse.

“Tomorrow will be a totally different type of ball,” Townsend said. “We’ve got to try and slow the tempo down and play our game and hope we get another trip to San Antonio.”