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No Panic: Plano overcomes slow start to cruise past Sachse
By DEVIN HASSON, dhasson@starlocalnews.com
SACHSE-Plano's team bus ran into traffic on the way to Sachse High School on Tuesday, causing a slight delay in its arrival, and the Lady Wildcats started the game in much the same fashion.
It took nearly four minutes for Plano to register its first field goal, but once they got going, there was not much Sachse could do to stop them.
The Lady Wildcats raced to a 41-18 halftime lead and put it in cruise control from there on their way to a 54-39 victory to improve to 10-4 in non-district play.
"Our first half was good," Plano head coach Lynn Meger said. "I had some kids with foul trouble and I thought my subs came in and did a really good job ... we adjusted well."
For some teams, there might have been some anxious moments early on, as Sachse freshman Courtney Blankenship scored four quick points and Monica Dorsey's layup gave the Mustangs a 8-1 lead.
Rather than call a timeout, Meger opted to let her team play through the situation and that proved to be the right call. Afunugo broke the scoring drought with an inside basket with 4:10 left in the first quarter and the floodgates opened, as they outscored Sachse 40-10 during the next 12 minutes.
"Right now what I am trying to do is get them to think and react themselves. I probably should have called a timeout but I just wanted to see if someone would step up and be frustrated, too," Meger said. "I thought Hayley Wray stepped up and my post (Afunugo) stepped up and took charge. Binna Kim has been doing a great job of leading verbally and I need them all to be more verbal and for me to be less verbal, so we are just going to have to learn to do that."
Even with the foul trouble in the post, the Mustangs had no answer for Plano's interior game. After Blankenship converted a 3-point play to give Sachse an 11-9 lead late in the first quarter, Afunugo scored eight consecutive points inside and that opened up a 3-pointer by Yasmine Samadzada that gave the Lady Wildcats a 20-11 lead.
Plano's defense was stifling in the second quarter, holding the Lady Mustangs to just 1-of-13 shooting and forcing seven turnovers. And there were few second chances to be had, as Afunugo, who had 11 rebounds, and Lucy Gentry, who had seven points and 13 rebounds, continually swept the glass.
"I thought Lucy Gentry came in and played well, she played physical and big," Meger said. "I've got four posts I feel like I can play and the inside game made a difference."
Sachse cut the deficit to single digits when Cynthia Matthews hit a baseline jumper to make it 24-15, but the Lady Wildcats responded immediately, as Kylee Guthrie's 3-pointer started a 13-0 run to blow the game open at 37-15.
Plano shot just 37.7 percent for the night (20-of-53), but was nine-of-17 from the floor during the pivotal second-quarter run.
With a comfortable lead, the Lady Wildcats took some time to experiment in the third quarter and Sachse was able to take advantage. Lorian Benjamin had four points, Alexis Rene and Moriah Reed scored inside and Leah Crouse knocked down a trey as part of an 11-2 run to close the quarter to get back to within 49-33.
But while Plano did not regain its shooting touch in the fourth quarter, it did get back to the basics defensively, allowing only six points to prevent the Lady Mustangs from harboring any serious hopes of a comeback.
"In the third quarter we worked on something we had not practiced and when you do that, you see what you don't pick up very well, but we allowed them to score," Meger said. "Then we went back to what we practiced in the fourth and they didn't score. We've got a lot of room to work and a lot of things for me to notice, so we'll work on getting better from here."
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