Ladycats reach gold bracket in McDonald’s Texas Invitational Tournament

The Aledo Ladycats varsity squad traveled south for the McDonald’s Texas Invitational Tournament in Pasadena over the weekend. The Ladycats started their tournament off in impressive style with a 58-54 victory over Class 6A No. 7 Judson followed by double-digit wins over Cypress-Creek and Alief Taylor to finish 3-0 in pool play.

After that, Aledo advanced to the Division I Gold Bracket as one of the top four teams in the tournament field. The Ladycats pushed two top-five-ranked Class 6A teams to a close game in the fourth quarter but ultimately fell to No. 1 Pearland Dawson (52-35) and No. 5 Summer Creek (55-45).

Senior forward Tiara Butler posted 68 points across five games to lead the charge for Aledo while star senior guard Elizabeth Griffin helped Aledo to its fourth-place finish after averaging 12 points per game. Junior guard Brooklyn Dempsey poured in 36 points across five games while Kate Jackson chipped in with 33 total points throughout the tournament.

Additionally, the Ladycats’ subvarsity programs excelled in their respective tournament slates over the weekend. The JV and freshman teams competed in the Weatherford Tournament, and the JV went 3-1 for a third-place finish while the freshman squad won first place after finishing with a 4-0 overall record. Sunny Rosado eclipsed double-figure scoring in all but one game to lead the JV while Reagan Stone led the charge for the freshman team that included a 22-point outing against Paschal.

The Ladycats (7-2) will take the court again at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Wylie (6-2).