REMOVING HOLIDAY RUST

Meridian girls basketball gear up to resume District 12-2A play by coming out of Christmas break to compete in Clifton Tournament, face league-leaders Crawford, Itasca next

Coming out of their week-long break for the Christmas holiday, the Meridian Lady Jackets were looking for some action that would bring them back up to speed to resume the District 12-2A race in the 2024-25 Texas high school girls basketball season. And that’s exactly what they got at the annual Clifton Lady Cub Tournament.

After losing their first three games of the tournament against Australia’s Yarrambat Phantoms, Class 3A Maypearl and host Clifton, the Lady Jackets wrapped it up with an impressive 27-14 victory over the Class 2A Chilton Lady Pirates for seventh place last Saturday afternoon at the Clifton High School gymnasium.

“Going into the Clifton Tournament, we knew it was going to be a tough task with quality teams from Class 4A China Springs down to 2A Slidell,” Meridian girls basketball head coach Adan Reyes said. “The most important thing we accomplished out of this tournament was getting back into the gym and getting the blood and lungs going again.”

Making the move up from Class 1A to 2A this season, the Lady Jackets (0-2 in district, 5-15 overall) continue their battle Bosqueville, Crawford, Itasca, Rio Vista, Valley Mills and Waco Meyer in District 12-2A this season in hopes of returning to the postseason for the third straight time.

On the heels of the Clifton Tournament, Meridian resumes district play with a road game at the Crawford Lady Pirates (3-0, 6-4) at noon Tuesday before returning home to host the Itasca Lady Wampus Cats (2-0, 11-7) at 7 p.m. Friday.

Meridian dropped its district opener on the road to Bosque County arch-rival Valley Mills, 45-36 before the Christmas break with a 51-34 home loss to the Bosqueville Lady Bulldogs Dec. 20 at Yellowjacket Gymnasium.

Behind a 30-point performance from junior Kameryn Kelly, the Valley Mills Lady Eagles (1-2, 7-12) jumped out to a commanding 28-14 halftime lead and soared on to victory. Junior Dyna Potter led Meridian with 11 points in the losing effort, followed by senior Mariana Paniagua with 10 and junior Addyson Scott with six.

“We knew that they Lady Eagles were going to make the adjustments needed to stay in the game,” Reyes said. “With our point guard getting in early foul trouble, the Lady Eagles put together a big second quarter which allowed them a big enough cushion to win.”

Against district co-leading Bosqueville (3-0, 8-8), the Lady Bulldogs opened up an eight-point lead by halftime before outscoring the Lady Jackets, 18-4 in the third period to take control of the game. Scott led Meridian with 10 points, followed by senior Journey Stauffer with eight, Paniagua with seven and Potter with five.

After a six-day layoff, the Lady Jackets opened the Clifton Tournament playing in Pool A with a 58-28 loss to the eventual tournament finalist and Class 3A Maypearl Lady Panthers last Thursday morning before falling to the Yarrambat travel team from Australia, 49-37, last Thursday afternoon.

Against Maypearl, Scott and Stauffer led the Lady Jackets with seven points each, while Potter led the losing effort against Yarrambat with 11 points, followed by Scott with eight, Paniagua with seven and sophomore Sarah Rosales with six.

“We thought we were in a manageable pool with Maypearl, Clifton and Yarrambat,” Reyes said. “We played Maypearl in the Venus tournament, so we knew they were going to be tough. Then we played well against Yarrambat, but we just had too many turnovers, causing us to come up short.”

Then Friday morning, Meridian suffered a dominating 50-16 defeat to Class 3A host Clifton before bouncing back for a decisive victory over Chilton (7-10) Friday afternoon.

“We wrapped up pool play against a solid Clifton team, then played Chilton from Pool B for our final game,” Reyes said. “We were already shorthanded as we came in down two players with illnesses. Then early in the first half, we had one go down with an injury.

“But we were able to control the tempo of the game even though Chilton had speed all over the court. And we managed to make a couple of key buckets down the stretch to secure the win.”