Staying true to form, the Ladycats raced ahead early and continued to build its lead en route to another dominant win, which came by a final score of 63-33.
“The mindset is, ‘We’re not there yet,’ because we want to be undefeated. I mean, that’s what’s really driving us right now,” Ladycats head coach Donnie Ott said. “We’ve just been tightening up these last few games to make sure that we have big momentum going into the playoffs and playing well.”
The 30-point victory allowed Aledo (22-7, 10-0) to capture its first district title since the 2018-19 season, and it aims to finish the district season undefeated for the first time since the 2013-14 campaign. That year, Aledo competed in Class 4A against district foes in Arlington Heights, Granbury, Trimble Tech, South Hills, Southwest, Western Hills and Wyatt. The Ladycats’ dominance has been impressive, as they have won each of their 10 district games by double figures with an average margin of victory of 32.4 points per game.
“Today, I thought we did a really good job of moving the ball, finding each other and knocking down some big shots – we just played really well together,” Ott said. “We rotated those seniors in and, on a special night like this, they didn’t miss a beat. I was just really excited about the way they played tonight.”
Aledo began to run away with a solid string of scoring to open the second quarter. Senior guard Jaylee Owens knocked down a 3-pointer from the corner with 4:33 left and senior forward Tiara Butler scored inside about a minute later to extend Aledo’s lead to double figures at 24-13. Later, senior post Brenna Clock connected on a jumper with 2:31 left and Kate Jackson followed that up with a nice step-through layup at the 1:32 mark for a 28-15 advantage. Jackson scored inside with 47 seconds left off the feed from junior guard Brooklyn Dempsey. Sawyer Voight beat the buzzer with a layup off a nice pass from Clock, which gave the Ladycats a 32-15 lead at halftime.
“This second half of district, we’ve really started watching ourselves instead of watching opponents,” Ott said. “We really try to be locked in on what we need to do to get better and what we need to clean up to get better. Today, we knew we beat them (Saginaw) by 21 the first time we played them, but defensively, I just wasn’t excited about the way they played. So to come out today and have a comfortable 30-point margin was really good for our lids and just to see our defense the way it was today.”
Butler swished a 3-pointer from the corner with 5:35 left to cushion Aledo’s advantage at 35-20. Minutes later, senior guard Elizabeth Griffin scored off a steal with 3:56 to extend the lead to 41-20. A layup with Kennedy Cardenas with 1:05 left in the frame pushed the lead to 30 points at 50-20, which held up as the final margin.
Butler scored a game-high 16 points while Griffin poured in 11. Dempsey also reached double figures with 10 points while Jackson added eight. Owens and Sarah Edwards scored five points apiece and Cardenas had four.
The Ladycats will return to the hardwood at 6:15 p.m. Friday at Azle.
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