DUNCANVILLE, Texas — The Fayetteville Lady Bulldogs started the 59th annual Sandra Meadows Classic with a 43-33 win Monday against Allen (Texas) High School.
Sierra Shipley led the Lady Bulldogs (10-0) with 15 points, including five 3-pointers and Clair Childers scored eight.
However, Fayetteville coach Bobby Smith said it was good defense that gave the team the win.
“Defensively, we were real strong,” Smith said. “I thought our defense got us out front and got us going pretty good. That’s the highlight for sure.”
The Lady Bulldogs defense held Allen to just one point in the second quarter and helped Fayetteville pull away with a 26-9 halftime lead.
To Smith’s dismay, Fayetteville’s shooting cooled off in the second half as the Lady Bulldogs mustered just 17 points while Allen cut into the lead.
Allen closed Fayetteville’s lead to 10 points with 2:05 left in the fourth quarter, but Allen was not able to score another basket until the final four seconds of the game — well after Smith had subbed in five reserve players to finish the game.
“We’re a learning team,” Allen coach Sean Weibling said. “I’m proud of them for fighting the way they did. That Fayetteville program is known for what they did to us tonight. We have to learn from that and take pointers from them.”
The Lady Bulldogs will face Bishop Lynch High School (13-3), a parochial school in Dallas, at noon today and will play a second game to be determined depending on the outcome of the Bishop Lynch game at 7:30 p.m.
If Fayetteville wins the noon game, it will continue play in the tournament’s championship bracket against either Converse (Texas) Judson High School or Mesquite (Texas) Horn High School. If the Lady Bulldogs drop the Bishop Lynch game, they will begin play in the tournament’s silver bracket against the loser of the Judson-Horn game.
Regardless, Smith expects his girls to come out with a better offensive approach.
“We’ve got a couple of kids we’re counting on to be big-time players,” Smith said. “They’re just not rearing their head like they need to, and they will, and they always seem to when it counts. If not, we’re going to have to count on defense again.”