HOOPING TO THE TOP

As the only undefeated in District 20-1A, Meridian Lady Jackets close out first round by hosting Iredell Friday coming off back-to-back dominant wins

Despite an eight-day layoff for the holidays, the Meridian Lady Jackets picked up right where they left off in the 2023-24 Texas high school girls basketball season by extending their winning streak to six straight. But most importantly, the Lady Jackets remained undefeated in District 20-1A competitions with two big wins last week.

Coming off back-to-back overwhelming wins over the Covington Lady Owls, 44-17, last Tuesday and the Kopperl Lady Eagles, 63-8, last Friday, the Lady Jackets (5-0 in district, 9-14 overall) will enjoy an open date Tuesday before wrapping up the first round of district competition by traveling to Iredell to take on the Lady Dragons (3-2, 10-7) at 6 p.m. Friday.

“Iredell is right there along with Covington fighting for one of those final spots for the playoffs,” Meridian girls basketball head coach Adan Reyes said. “Iredell always has a scrappy bunch, and Coach Hatridge always finds a way to keep his team in games and find ways to win.

“This won’t be the first time we’ve seen Iredell this season. I know Coach Hatridge will make adjustments, and his team will come out swinging from the tip looking to get a big district win.”

With Meridian idle on Tuesday, Blum (4-1, 7-6) crushed Covington, 56-13, on the road, Walnut Springs (4-2, 8-5) knocked off Morgan (1-4, 4-12), 34-21, and Iredell shot down winless Kopperl (0-5, 0-13), 49-26

Coming out of the Christmas break, the Lady Jackets used a nail-biting and thrilling 32-31 non-district victory over Waco Live Oak Charter at home Dec. 28 to get back up to speed before resuming district play.

“Going into the Live Oak game, I didn’t know how much of an effect the five-day UIL-mandated layoff would have on us,” Reyes said. “We were able to get into the gym as soon as we could and got to work. Live Oak always puts together good teams and watching them on film we knew they were going to be solid.

“Just as we expected, Live Oak came ready to play, and it was a back and forth game the whole game. We managed to make key plays down the stretch, which allowed us to secure the win. It was exactly the test we needed during this break.”

Against Live Oak, freshman Sarah Rosales led the Lady Jackets with 11 points by tossing in a trio of three-pointers, followed by senior Canyon Stauffer with seven, as well as senior Eve Dirkse and junior Mackenzie Borhofen with six points each.

Expecting a challenge from Covington as district resumed Jan. 2, the Lady Jackets battled to a 7-7 tied in the first period before opening up a six-point lead going into halftime.

“Going into the game against Covington, we knew Covington would come out strong against us,” Reyes said. “Coach Mayes does a good job with the program over there, and he’s fighting for one of the four spots to get into the playoffs. Just as I expected, Covington came out strong.”

But the Lady Jackets came out of the locker room after intermission and took control of the game before outscoring Covington, 17-1, in the final period to ice the win. Canyon Stauffer led Meridian with 17 points, followed by junior Mariana Paniagua with nine and junior Journey Stauffer with eight.

“After making a few adjustments at half, we came out strong and started to move the ball and put up some points,” Reyes said. “We slowly started to pull away in the third, and we managed to put the game out of reach in the fourth.”

In the dominating win over Kopperl, Canyon Stauffer once again led the Lady Jackets with 17 points, followed by Dirkse with 14, Paniagua with 13 and Journey Stauffer with 12.

“Against Kopperl, we wanted to focus our attention on working on things that we needed to fine tune,” Reyes said. “When we only have a squad of eight, it’s hard to get live looks during practice. So we took full advantage of the opportunity to go through some of our stuff we don’t get to look at during practice. It gave us the chance to fix things on the fly and to continue to try and improve on our areas of need.”