Lady Cavs overwhelmed in season opener

THE WOODLANDS, TEX. -- A few years ago, the College Park Lady Cavaliers were one of the few teams in Texas who could give the Cy-Fair Lady Bobcats a run for their money on the basketball floor.

Unfortunately, that was not the case on Tuesday night.

The tradition-rich Lady Bobcats, led by all-state point guard Angela Harris, used a tenacious full-court press and some dead-dye 3-point shooting to beat the young Lady Cavaliers 68-39 in both teams' season opener at College Park High School.

Harris, who is only a junior, led all scorers with 21 points, including a trio of 3-pointers, one coming at the end of the first quarter to give the Lady Bobcats a 19-4 lead. She also had six assists and could have had many more had her teammates been able to handle several of her slick passes.

The Lady Cavs simply were in a quandry on whether to come out and pressure Harris or sag off her. If they came out with man pressure, Harris would simply blow by the defender and either lay it in, or dish it off to a teammate for an easy layup. If they laid off, she would launch the three ball.

Cy-Fair, which alternated between a man-to-man and zone press, opened up a 10-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game. During that stretch, College Park managed only two shots and committed a whopping nine turnovers as Harris and guard Kyler Wyatt simply were too quick for the Lady Cavs.

When Harris came out of the game at the start of the second quarter, the Lady Cavs cut the lead to 21-12 behind the play of post players, Jasmine Atobajeun and Jala Buster, and the shooting of guards Devyn and Haley Fitzpatrick. The quartet sparked an 8-0 run and forced Harris to climb back off the bench and enter the contest with 5:32 left in the first half. On the Lady Bobcats' first possession, Harris nailed a 3-pointer. She followed up with two straight baskets to up the lead to 28-12.

Cy-Fair's Brynae Thompson and Taylor Miller added 3-pointers on the next two trips down the floor to stretch the lead to 34-12 to end the first half.

The Lady Cavs, who have several underclassmen that earned quality playing time, cut the lead to 37-19 early in the third period, but that is as close as they would get the rest of the night. College Park, in fact, was content to stand behind the 3-point line and chuck threes for most of the final 16 minutes. Haley Fitzpatrick was the only College Park player in double figures with 12 points.

Cy-Fair, which stretched its lead to as much as 36 points at 69-33, had 10 girls scored in the game. Wyatt also had nine points and Taylor McGowin added eight for the Lady Bobcats, who should be one of the teams to push Manvel for the Region III-6A championship.

College Park should challenge for a playoff spot in District 16-6A, though it could be tough sledding against The Woodlands, Kingwood, Atascocita and Oak Ridge.