Poise carries No. 14 Lake Dallas past Mansfield Timberview, into area round

Lake Dallas head girls basketball coach Jordan Davis spent the first half of this week checking on the well-being of her players during the winter storm.

The power at Davis’ place of residence was on and off, while she said that several of her players were without power. For those Lady Falcons who had power, Davis chatted with them virtually over Zoom and gave them a couple of workouts to keep their bodies moving.

“It's just a crazy situation,” she said. “There was no way that they could get into the gym and shoot. Several of them were like, 'I'm laying in bed and shooting the ball at the ceiling.' I was like, ‘Yeah, at least you're doing that.'”

Power outages and all, the time away from the gym didn’t affect Lake Dallas’ play on the court during Saturday’s Class 5A area championship against Mansfield Timberview.

The Lady Falcons took a 5-0 lead just 25 seconds into the game on a 3-pointer by sophomore Camryn Richardson and a subsequent steal and layup and never looked back in a 51-43 victory at Irving High School.

Richardson scored 11 points to pace a balanced attack for the Lady Falcons. Juniors Mackenzie Buss and Jorja Elliott each had 10 points, followed by nine from sophomore Altyn Bartley and eight by Allie Buchanan.

Lake Dallas (24-4), No. 14 in Class 5A by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, advances to the regional quarterfinals for the second straight season. The Lady Falcons will play No. 3 Wichita Falls Rider (23-2) at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Chico High School. The Lady Raiders defeated Burleson Centennial, 56-47.

Lake Dallas has gotten off to fast starts in several games, and Saturday was no different. The Lady Falcons took a 21-10 lead at the end of the first quarter before surviving a late rally by Timberview (18-9).

“It was kind of a great boost when you see that first one go in," Davis said. "It just opens up a lot more of the game going forward. I think that our first quarter was huge, being able to knock down some really big shots."

Timberview chipped away at Lake Dallas’ lead and got to within four points in the fourth quarter.

But the Lady Falcons withstood the Lady Wolves’ best punch and made several key plays over the game’s final eight minutes.

Buchanan boxed out for an offensive rebound on the right side of the glass, took one dribble and powered up for a layup to give Lake Dallas a 40-34 lead with 6:58 left in the game.

Buss delivered the dagger. The Lake Dallas point guard released a one-handed jump shot to give Lake Dallas a 51-39 lead with 1:23 left then drew a charge at the other end of the court.

"That was some really good poise there," Davis said. "I try to tell them that basketball is a game of runs. Good, well-coached teams are going to make a run and they're going to try to find ways to chip away at a lead, and Timberview did that.

“But, just being able to go get a bucket, to go get a rebound, and understand what it is that they need to do and get it done, I'm just so proud of them. They just stayed with it. We made some mistakes that we shouldn't have -- turn the ball over and maybe had a couple of shots that weren't in rhythm. But, they made up for it on defense and securing the ball and getting that W at the end of the fourth quarter."