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In a conversation during the Holidays with Coach Jordan Batson, he said despite their record, he could see marked improvement in the Lady Tigers. What he saw in the Hays tourney playing some pretty good teams was his team playing longer and longer stretches of good basketball. Now what he is looking forward to is seeing those stretches reach into full games. When that happens the victories will start showing up. While watching the last district game loss to Seguin 51-45 it was obvious they were not quite there but close. In fact the Lady Tigers have been involved with some very close losses that could have drastically changed the 8-18 record they now have. They have a very legitimate shot at still making the playoffs. All the more reason for continuing the process of daily improvement. With the second half of district left here are the standings: NB Canyon 8-0, Boerne Champion 6-1, Kerrville Tivy 4-2, Seguin 4-3, DS 3-4, Veterans Memorial 2-4, Alamo Heights 1-6, Lehman 0-7.
Unfortunately stats were not immediately available for the Hays tourney – only scores. In the opener the Lady Tigers lost to Antonion Prep 63-41, San Marcos 52-33, Rockwall-Heath 57-37 and Temple 43-33. They managed to defeat Taylor 47-25. Back to district and a trouncing of Hays Lehman 59-19.
Seguin provided the opposition to start the New Year. Once again it was a game that could have gone either way. Seguin got off to a 4-0 lead but a pair of threes by Brynn Fields and Jordan Cox, plus a pair of free throws by Makynna Hubbard were enough to give DS an 8-6 margin after one. Kiera O'Connor and Azaria Arnold picked up the scoring slack to push the advantage to 23-17 at the half.
The second half proved to be a bad stretch when a good one would have won the game. Usually in a close game, free throws generally decide the outcome. They were a big reason. In the first half DS dropped in 7 of 8. In a foul-marred second half, the Lady Tigers faltered in that category. During the third stanza they hit 4-8 as they fell behind 38-36 after three. The fourth when free throws were even more critical it was 1-8. Lady Tiger fouls put the Lady Matadors on the line 21 times, including five after DS trailed by two (44-46) with 1.34 left in the game. The Lady Tigers played hard, pushing the ball up the court trying to score. In the end the attempts were good ideas but decisions went awry in execution and became a part of their 15 turnovers. For the night DS hit 12-28 from two and 3-14 from three. It was a win for the taking.
Not making it any easier is a four-game stretch away from home. However three will be the top three but this means the one's they will be battling for that fourth spot will be home games.
Scoring for the Lady Tigers versus Seguin were: Hubbard 10, Arnold 9, Cox 7, O'Connor 4, Fields 3, Linan Scott 3, Madelyn Robles 3, Ella Smith 3, Hayden Ely 2, Caroline Dill 1.
