The Aledo Ladycats basketball team continued its red-hot start to the season with another home contest Tuesday night in the first game of a double header between the boys and girls varsity squads of Aledo and Trinity High Schools. In the second game, the Bearcats opened the 2025-26 season against the Trojans. In the end, the Ladycats cruised to a 48-20 win while the boys triumphed by a final score of 79-54.
The Aledo Ladycats started the game off by scoring the first 10 points and saw star senior guard Elizabeth Griffin and junior guard Brooklyn Dempsey knock down 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to push Aledo ahead 8-0 with 4:45 left in the opening quarter. Seconds later, senior post Tiara Butler picked the pocket of a Trinity ballhandler and scored on the other end for a 10-0 advantage at the 3:59 mark, forcing the visitors to call a timeout.
“We returned our three leading scorers from last year, so the idea this year is for them not to just be solely concentrated on where the points are coming from, but just know that we’ve got people that can score,” Ladycats head coach Donnie Ott said. “We just need to move the ball, find the right shots, get out in transition and run, which I thought we did a pretty good job of today. Just playing together helps, too, because I think it opens up a lot. Brenna’s such an unselfish player inside. She moves the ball and shares the ball, and Tee (Tiara Butler) does as well. Understanding that we can work inside-out, we can work outside-in, attack gaps, pitch it out to shooters – we’ve got some options if we play like we’re supposed to.”
Aledo was utilizing those options well through Ott’s methodology as the Ladycats turned a 12-3 lead at the end of the first quarter into a double-digit advantage of 25-10 at halftime. Griffin drained a 3-pointer with 5:07 left in the second quarter then completed an old school three-point play with 2:26 to go to nurse the advantage at 20-6 and 23-7, respectively. Even though they faced an unorthodox defense, Ott saw plenty of good coupled with some areas of improvement that were addressed at intermission.
“We hadn’t seen the zone all year, so outside of what we practiced, and it’s different, replicating it because Doug (Sporrer) at Trinity, they’re doing a phenomenal job of running a little two-three (zone),” Ladycats head coach Donnie Ott said. “It’s kind of like a flat zone, it’s unorthodox and when you don’t practice and you don’t play against it a lot, it becomes difficult, which made us stagnant early. We just kind of made some lazy passes and were doing things that were uncharacteristic, but I was really proud of the way we made a few adjustments out of halftime. I was really proud of the way they came out and responded in the second half. I felt like the effort and energy were a lot better there and the shots started falling.”
Griffin’s first shot from long range in the second half fell with 6:11 remaining in the third quarter, and great ball movement led to a bucket inside by Butler with 4:01 to go as Aledo held a 34-10 advantage. Griffin canned another triple with 3:27 in the third frame as Aledo eventually entered the final quarter with a 39-13 margin. Dempsey’s 3-pointer with 5:26 to go pushed the lead to 42-15 before Aledo emptied its bench with 5:09 remaining.
Griffin led all scorers with 18 points while Dempsey poured in 10 points. Butler and Kennedy Cardenas added six points apiece while Brenna Clock had four.
The Ladycats (4-0) will head south for the McDonalds Invitational Tournament in Pasadena from Thursday through Saturday.
Last year, the Aledo Bearcats beat Brewer twice en route to winning its first district title in program history. This year, the Bearcats look to achieve that same feat with its third head coach in as many years. In the team’s season opener and head coach Andrew Baker’s Aledo Bearcat debut, the home team used scrappy defense to fuel its fastbreak offense to roll to a 79-54 victory to open the 2025-26 season.
“I’d like to see it happen a bit more, but we do a lot of breakdown drills where we’re playing in those gaps,” Baker said. “We teach our guys to shut the drive down and, I mean, the reality is they just have really good instincts and they’re playing with their hands. We want to be really active with our hands. We’ve got a really experienced group of guys, so some of that is we’re emphasizing putting pressure on the ball and keeping pressure on the ball to force other teams into those (turnovers).”
Aledo raced out to a 12-0 opening lead and never looked back. Junior guard Caden Cunningham splashed a 3-pointer with 4:36 that stretched the lead to 15-2. The Bearcats, fueled by their defense and experience, held a 21-6 advantage after one quarter of play.
“These guys’ experience and instincts allow them to run those passing lanes – turning defense into offense is a big thing,” Baker said. “I think we started the game with that big run, and I think half of that run was defense-to-offense running out, so I was very pleased with that. Ultimately, as we progress, we’ve got to become more consistent with it, but they did a really good job of taking space away and closing gaps off.”
In the second quarter, Aledo looked inside to senior post Townes Van Huysen, who scored eight of his 15 points in the frame – all in the paint – while Enrique Pacheco found Josiah Jenkins leaking out before the halftime horn for a layup attempt. Jenkins was fouled and sank both shots from the charity stripe to give Aledo a 38-25 halftime advantage.
“We return some really good guys from last year, and then we’ve got some young guys that mesh really well,” Baker said. “One of the things we’ve been dedicated to since Day One is establishing what our culture is, and communication is really high on the list. On the court, obviously, but just as men off the court – it’s a life skill. We talk every day about EG and PT – energy givers and positive touches. When you get those things down, the communication becomes natural, and I think that was evident tonight.”
The intangibles and communication were proven strengths on the court for Aledo that showed a direct correlation with its on-court success, as evidenced by the Bearcats outscoring the Trojans 19-9 in the third quarter and 41-29 in the second half overall. With a large lead, though, Baker wants to see his team value the ball more, as some quick shots or late turnovers led to some easy Trinity baskets late in the contest.
“One thing we’ve got to develop is winning habits, which we’ve discussed from the first day of practice,” Baker said. “When we slid over and took the charge early in the game, I turned to the bench and told them, ‘That’s winning basketball.’ I think we sometimes get loose with the ball and have empty possessions where we just don’t value the ball – we’ll make a play and just give it right back. For me, the biggest thing we want to focus on is a little bit more of just valuing the ball in certain situations – don’t just give it right back – we don’t need to be in a rush all the time. There’s a difference between playing with tempo and just being in a hurry, so I think we can figure that out.”
Pacheco led all scorers with 18 points while Cunningham and Van Huysen added 15 points apiece. Joshua Timms contributed with seven points while Josiah Jenkins had five points and several steals.
The Bearcats (1-0) will compete in the Coppell Tournament from Thursday through Saturday.
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