At the very least, the Plano East girls basketball team should be relatively battle-tested three weeks into the 2012-13 season.

Matchups in the past eight days against state-ranked foes DeSoto and McKinney North prefaced Tuesday's 50-42 setback against Bishop Lynch, the state's top-ranked private school according to the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches.

As the youthful Lady Panthers (4-6) continue to get acclimated to the varsity level, it'll mean some growing pains. Tuesday presented a new wrinkle in that endeavor, with a string of sicknesses and concussions whittling down the East rotation to seven players and even forcing a couple JV call-ups for Tuesday.

"I felt very positive toward the end especially considering we only had seven," said LaGwenna Morrow, East head coach. "My biggest issue at first was conditioning and the chemistry with a new rotation. It worked well to begin with but we just missed a lot of shots tonight."

Nevertheless, the shorthanded Lady Panthers still found themselves trailing Lynch by just three points at 38-35 with 5:30 left in the fourth quarter after senior Jasmine Caston knocked down a floater in the paint.

The Lady Friars countered with a 4-0 run to extend their lead to 42-35 after Julianne Percy stole the ball and stormed down the count for a layup.

Turnovers unraveled the Lady Panthers late, surrendering the ball five times in the final frame, with Percy's takeaway and score replicated by teammate Rachel Kohler with 90 seconds left in the game to give Lynch a 47-39 lead.

The Lady Friars were reliant on the charity stripe from that point forward, including three free throws made by both Kaycie Tillman and Brittny Norris. Tilliman led Lynch with 12 points, six rebounds and four steals while Norris contributed 10 points and four assists.

The Lady Panthers found themselves playing catch-up after being outscored in the second quarter, 16-7.

Showing Lynch a zone look, the Lady Friars not only managed the requisite ball movement to break said defense but did so behind their bench. Shortly after breaking East's press with a layup for a 16-14 lead, Kohler added a 3-pointer for a 21-14 advantage that highlighted a 9-0 Lady Friar run that included four points from reserve Celia Hardick.

"Those points within our zone allowed [Lynch] to pull away," Morrow said. "I went to zone to give us a bit of a breather but with their outside shooting, we had to go back to man pretty quickly."

Any attempt at a counterpunch came behind the trigger of Caston, who led all scorers with 24 points and five rebounds.

"[Caston's] the leader that understands and knows this team, so we're going to try to feed her the ball as much as possible," Morrow said.

Morrow added the No. 2 scoring role varies night to night and on Tuesday, freshman Daria McCutcheon led that carousel with six points and four steals. Junior Jordan Welch added five points.

The Lady Friars managed to extend their lead to 28-20 at halftime and 37-28 after three quarters, overcoming a sluggish start that allowed East to snag a 13-12 lead after one frame.

Falling into an early 5-0 hole after Norris knocked down a transition 3-ball, East responded with a 7-0 run that featured five points from Caston. The Lady Panthers added a stingy press for good measure, flustering Lynch into five first-quarter turnovers while committing just one of their own.

That figure didn't hold though, as while Lynch would still commit four turnovers in each of the three remaining quarters, East yielded 14 takeaways of its own.

The Lady Friars turned those turnovers into points and in doing so, dealt the Lady Panthers their third straight loss.

East looks to right the ship at 4 p.m. Thursday against Garland in a first-round matchup at Sachse in the 2012 Curtis Culwell Invitational Basketball Tournament.

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