Barbers Hill zone defense and perimeter game stayed on par
Playing a team three time in two seasons, when much haven’t changed, can bring familiarity, which was the case in Barbers Hill meeting with Beaumont Ozen in the Class 4A-Region III Quarterfinals. Last year the two met twice with Ozen coming away with both victories, 65-63 and 47-43.
With knowledge of Ozen, Barber Hills used a solid zone defense and timely shooting of Makenzi May and Shannon Evans to come away with a 66-39 victory Saturday at the Campbell Center.
The win keeps the Eagles unbeaten against 4A schools this season and sends them to the state tournament in Austin where it will face Mansfield Timberview next Thursday evening at 7:00 pm.
May and Evans combined for 44 points, including six 3-pointers. Its offensive success evolved around its ability to make the extra pass, leaving both shooters open for good looks. Although only 11 first half points, it was the second half when May did the most damage scoring 15 points.
“We knew were going to have to come out strong, because there an awesome team and when we got the lead that gave us some energy,” Barbers Hill shooting guard, Makenzi May. It feels amazing.”
Defense had the biggest impact. At one point, Ozen was 1-of-17 from behind the arc. Without its perimeter game working, the Lady Panthers drove to the basket which wasn’t much better, connecting on 4-of-18.
Trailing 5-0 early, Barbers Hill took a 6-5 lead on May’s back-to-back 3-pointers and finished the first quarter up, 13-11.
Evan’s 3-pointer completed a 5-0 run to began the second quarter. The scoring bounced back and forth from there.
“Coming into the game we knew we were the under dogs, Ozen was 36-0 and all the seniors have worked so hard all year. We didn’t hit our threes so much in the earlier game in this tournament. But we hit them today and we did everything possible could to beat Ozen. I’m extremely happy that we did,” Barbers Hill shooting guard Shannon Evans.
“We’ve played them three times before and they had all the same players, so we knew all their strengths and all of their weaknesses. We worked our butts off in practice. We played them twice last year and the year before”, said Evans.
May drilled her third trey of the game with 5:03 left in the quarter, to put the Lady Eagles up 20-13, before Ozen’s guard Asia Booker cut the lead to five with a finger role layup.
“Losing never feels good specially in the environment we had today,” said Ozen’s coach Tammy Walker-Brown. We had some awesome seniors and I’m very grateful of the leadership of Asia Booker, she will be well missed but we have some freshmen who are sparks of light just as Asia was when she was a freshman. We’ll be back.”
Soon after, Barbers Hills stretched its lead to eight, 25-17 when Swing Forward Kaylee Kana converted two straight baskets. However, Ozen wasn’t ready to let the game get too far out of reach, countering with back-to-back baskets, as Sanquiesha Rawls and Nekia Jones scored on layups to pull within four, 25-21 before trailing 27-21 at the half.
For the lady Panthers, the second half was the beginning of the end. Its perimeter game struggled throughout the second half. That’s when Ozen turned to its inside game. All the while Barbers Hill continued to find open shots, increasing its lead, 43-31 to end the third quarter.
“It’s not a disappointing season, we had an awesome ride, just the entire program”, Coach Walker-Brown said. The freshman were 26-0, the JV was 28-0 and with the varsity not losing a game until tonight. So we’re encouraged that we have a program that can withstand this.
May added three more 3-pointers to help turn things into a rout for Barbers Hill.
Jones led Ozen with 17 points on a very disappointing night.
