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One win short: Lady Redhawks fall to Lincoln in regional finals
BY Chris O’Dell, codell@starlocalnews.com
It was a year of firsts for the Liberty girls basketball team.
The Lady Redhawks became the first team in program history to win 30 games, tallying a 35-6 mark on the year, the first to go unbeaten against district counterparts and the first to win a district championship.
Most notably, Liberty reached the regional finals for the first time after dismantling Red Oak, 49-28, in the regional semifinals.
That victory matched Liberty against perennial contender Dallas Lincoln and although the Lady Redhawks were just one win away from adding their first trip to Austin, their run ended with a 56-43 loss to Lincoln at Garland’s Curtis Culwell Center on Saturday.
“It was a tough one,” Harrison said. “[Lincoln] is a great team, but we probably didn’t play our best game.”
The Lady Redhawks were outdone in the opening half after Lincoln stormed out to an 18-8 advantage after the opening quarter. Liberty then saw that deficit swell to 13 points at the break.
“We missed a lot of early shots,” Harrison said. “If we had made those shots that we normally make, we wouldn’t have gotten down so much.”
Part of those struggles came from the charity stripe, where the Lady Redhawks shot just 8-of-20 at the line.
“That’s never good,” Harrison said.
The two teams then traded baskets for a majority of the second half and ultimately saw Lincoln earn a 13-point victory to book another trip to the Class 4A state tournament. Senior guard Beatrice Attura led the Lady Redhawks with 14 points, joining junior post Bria Frierson (11 points) as the only two Liberty players in double figures.
“I hope by us being [in the regional finals], we’re starting to instill that success into the program,” Harrison said.
The game marked the second in two days, with Liberty’s victory over Red Oak coming on Friday and the team’s loss to Lincoln coming the following day.
“I definitely don’t want to make excuses,” Harrison said, “but that’s a pretty brutal turnaround. There was really no time to prepare or rest.”
The loss ended an 18-game winning streak for Liberty and puts the team’s final record at 35-6. The team also avoided any major slip-ups throughout the season, with Liberty’s six losses coming to Lincoln (2), Plano Senior, Frisco Lone Star, Plano West and League City Clear Springs.
“It was a full week for a team that had only won a bi-district game before that,” Harrison said.
Attura joins guard Andrea Mapua and forward Sara Vincent as graduating seniors. The team returns key contributors in Frierson and junior guard Kayla Mundy, among others.
“We are losing a few key seniors, but we’re not losing everything,” Harrison said.
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