Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Llano topples 30-3A power West Oso

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Saturday, February 24, 2001
Llano topples 30-3A power West Oso
Lady Bears’ run through the postseason brought to a stop in 54-38 loss
By George Vondracek
Caller-Times
KINGSVILLE - It could have been the surroundings at the Steinke Physical Education Center. It could have been the taller opponent, its height advantage and pressing defense. It could have been the free-wheeling mode of the game in which officials' whistles blew at an erratic pace.
   Whatever the reason, it was not the same girls basketball team from West Oso High School that had mowed through the 2000-2001 schedule.
   Llano brought an abrupt and sobering end to the Lady Bears' season Friday in the Region IV-3A semifinals, avenging an overtime loss in last year's semis with a 54-38 win in front of an estimated 1,300 people on the Texas A&M-Kingsville campus.
   "I guess we just didn't come out and play,'' West Oso senior guard Lydia De Los Santos said.
   Never this season had the 30-3 Lady Bears faced such a test. Their two losses were close ones, 39-36 to Port Aransas and 45-40 to Los Fresnos. Champions of District 30-3A, West Oso later avenged the Port A loss.
   Friday was a different story. Champs of 26-3A, the 29-5 Lady Jackets pressed and pressured West Oso into 24 turnovers. Staring out of a 22-12 hole after one quarter, the Lady Bears never got on track. They suffered through scoring droughts of 4 minutes, 23 seconds to open the second half and 5:14 at the outset of the fourth quarter.
   "It's kind of disappointing to end like this because we can play better basketball than we played,'' West Oso coach Roy Williams said.
   Longtime followers of the team would agree. While Llano's Sonya West and Kristi Howell were combining for 40 points, the Lady Jackets literally swiped rebounds from the Lady Bears' hands, stepped in front of errant passes and otherwise frustrated West Oso into making uncharacteristic mistakes.
   "We put a lot of pressure on them,'' said coach Jacquetta Brown, whose Llano team will face Luling for today's regional title and a berth in the state tournament next Thursday. Luling (27-4) went on a 5-0 run to open overtime and went on to beat Smithville, 56-50, in the other semifinal.
   "West Oso's a great ballteam. They're very athletic, very quick,'' Brown said. "But I think we've got a good defense and it rattled them.''
   Paced by 9-of-11 shooting in the first quarter, Luling built the 10-point lead. Seniors Chanta Prince and Delyla Hoodye had six points apiece in the quarter, but Prince also had three fouls. By intermission, Llano slowly built the lead to 12, 31-19, with the 5-foot-10 West controlling the inside game. In addition to the game-best 23 points, the Llano junior had 11 rebounds and 10 steals.
   "We never had a game like this,'' said De Los Santos, who had eight steals, five assists and blocked one of West's shots. "I guess it was just hard to us to understand.''
   Still, the start of the second half brought renewed optimism to the West Oso bench - until the first scoring drought, which ended with Hoodye's basket off a nice assist from Prince at the 3:37 mark. However, that only cut the Llano lead to 37-21.
   "We were in the same situation last year at halftime. The exact same,'' Williams said. "We came out in the second half and did some good things, didn't make the same mistakes.
   "But we didn't capitalize on the things we had. I thought we could so something at that time. We just couldn't put it in the basket.''
   Luling didn't maintain its torrid first-quarter shooting pace, finishing with a 40.7 shooting percentage compared to West Oso's 36.8. But it was the number of extra shots the Lady Jackets got - they attempted 16 more than the Lady Bears and made eight more field goals.
   Hoodye finished with 19 points. Limited to a 3-pointer in the second half, Prince finished with nine before fouling out.

   Region IV-3A Semifinal
   Llano 54, West Oso 38
   West Oso 12 7 9 10-38
   Llano 22 9 13 10-54
   WEST OSO - Lydia De Los Santos 2, Katrina Thomas 2, Delyla Hoodye 19, Candis Lewis 2, Monica McCoy 2, Tamika Durham 2, Chanta Prince 9.
   LLANO - Michelle Choate 2, Micah Milliom 4, Sarah Barkley 1, Vicinta Gonzales 2, Kristi Howell 17, Sonya West 23, Jackie Froehner 5.
   3-point goals - WO, Prince, Hoodye. Records - WO 30-3, Llano 29-5.


Staff writer George Vondracek can be reached at 886-3731 or by e-mail at vondracekg@caller.com

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