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The Mitchell Retort: McKinney's late FT foils Lady Panthers rally
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@starlocalnews.com
For a McKinney girls basketball team making the jump to Class 5A, head coach Debbie Harris wasn't exactly thrilled about the way her team captured its first District 10-5A victory Tuesday.
She'll take the win no doubt though, as the Lionettes weathered a comeback bid by Plano East for a 46-45 decision.
"We can't play like that and expect to win games," Harris said. "We got lucky. That's all there is to it."
With the Lionettes in double bonus, Mitchell made 1-of-2 free throws to give McKinney a 46-45 edge that East wouldn't erase. Despite Mitchell missing the second free throw, the McKinney defense prevented East senior Kennedy Munson from getting a shot off before the buzzer.
It was a sigh of relief for the Lionettes, who watched a shorthanded Lady Panthers squad erase an 11-point deficit in just over two minutes during the third quarter.
"I wish we had played like that in the first half," said LaGwenna Morrow, East head coach. "In the second half, we went to the basket more. We were allowing McKinney to slow us down with their 2-1-2 defense and I just said we had to attack more aggressively."
The Lionettes led at 26-15 one minute into the third quarter, only for East to break off a 16-0 run for a 31-26 lead with 3:15 left in the frame.
"I'm just frustrated right now with our kids," Harris said. "We had a 10-point lead at halftime and I thought [East] outplayed us. You can't expect to win that many ball games with so many mental errors."
East mustered its comeback effort by forcing nine turnovers, including two steals converted into layups by freshman Daria McCutcheon. That was a common theme for the Lady Panthers' point guardm who wreaking havoc on the Lionettes' backcourt for 22 points and six steals.
"[McCutcheon] did a lot of great things on offense that really got the team going," Morrow said. "Even a couple of those steals she made off the press and turned into layups, that's a lot of leadership for a freshman."
McKinney rallied to reclaim a 34-33 lead inside the final minute of the third quarter after a steal and layup by junior Jaszmin Nelson, who recorded seven points and seven steals.
Able to carry a lead of 36-35 by the end of the quarter following a bucket by Mitchell, McKinney and East traded the lead four times and tied twice over the final eight minutes. During that span, Mitchell recorded eight points while East mustered only two points inside the game's final 2:30.
That same kind of offensive funk haunted East in the first half, thanks largely to the heavy number of turnovers surrendered by both teams. Totaling 61 turnovers on the night, McKinney got the better end of that exchange by forcing 34 takeaways to the Lady Panthers' 27.
"A lot of the turnovers were unforced because of simply anticipating a press or trap that never came," Morrow said. "We ended up overpassing or throwing it out of bounds."
"We made poor decisions on the offensive end of the floor that resulted in runs for [East]," Harris added. "I think our kids are equally frustrated with this one."
Fortunately for the Lionettes, Mitchell aided any of the team's scoring ills by dropping 16 of her game-high 22 points in the first half.
Those efforts gave her not just an overall scoring advantage over East in the second quarter -- outscoring the Lady Panthers to the tune of 11-8 -- but for the entire first half with the home team only able to muster 15 points to Mitchell's 16.
McKinney led, 25-15, at the break before East staged its comeback attempt.
The Lionettes return to action Friday for a 6 p.m. meeting at Plano West while East hosts Plano Senior at 7:30 p.m.
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