WINNING FOR COACH
With Lancaster away, Lady Badgers play inspired ball, down Lady Hawks
By JEREMY HEATH Staff Writer

PHOTO BY RICHARD AKRIDGE LHS guard Casey O'Connor wrestles the ball away from a Lady Hawk in the Lady Badgers' 56-40 win at Bozarth-Fowler Gymnasium on Wednesday. O'Connor was able to get off a pass to sophomore post Sarah Bishop, who converted a third-quarter bucket.

Lampasas High School girls' basketball coach Mitzi Lancaster listened to the final 19 seconds of her team's 56-40 home win against Pflugerville Hendrickson Wednesday via cell phone.

Lancaster, who was with her newborn son in a Georgetown hospital, liked what she heard. That's because the final buzzer marked the end of the Lady Badgers' strongest overall performance of the season. With the win, LHS (7-14 overall, 2-3 in District 25-4A) clawed its way back into the district race and did it by beating a team that was 13-9 coming in. Hendrickson falls to 2-3 in district.

"We had her on speaker phone before the game, and she said the prayer for us," LHS assistant Stuart Beckwith said. "And we left the first chair (on the bench) empty and tied a ribbon and a balloon to it for her. I've never been so honored to sit in the second chair at a basketball game."

The Lady Badgers, led by the outside shooting of Molly Rogers and the inside play of Latoscha Sherman, dominated the majority of the 32 minutes. They took a 2-0 lead on a Sherman layup with 5:05 to play in the opening quarter and never trailed or even allowed the Lady Hawks to tie.

"I've been here four years, and that's the most coachable, most responsive and the most focused I've seen these girls," Beckwith said. "They had their minds on Coach Lancaster and wanted to make her proud. They went back today and applied 3 1/2 years of what Coach Lancaster has taught them. It's the best team effort I've seen in a long, long while."

Sherman kicked off that team effort with a torrid start. She scored eight of her game-high 18 points in the opening frame, using her size and strength to open up space under the rim and her finesse to kiss the ball off the glass on layups and putbacks.

The lane was at times wide open because of Rogers' long-range attack. She canned two of her three 3- pointers in the first period, including a buzzer-beating bomb that gave LHS an 18-9 lead.

The Lady Hawks climbed within three points to 29-26 at the half behind six second-quarter points from guard Italy Taylor, but the Lady Badgers were able to hold them off with 3-pointers from Rogers, Michelle Benton and Casey O'Connor.

The third period was slow and sloppy -- exactly what Beckwith wanted.

"They were a very athletic team, so we thought we could slow them down with the zone," he said.

"The kids stuck to the game plan, and that's exactly what we were able to do."

The LHS defense held Hendrickson to six points in the quarter. Lady Badger junior post Sarah Bishop scored six by herself in the frame, and Jennifer Howard added two of her 10 total points as the Lampasas girls extended the lead to 37-32 entering the final period.

Sherman, who missed time in the second and third periods with an injury, proved OK in the fourth, scoring 10 points and getting to the line three times.

Benton added four of her seven points, and the Lady Badgers ran away with the game.

LHS will travel to Cedar Park to play Vista Ridge at 8 p.m. Friday.