Kozenko buried a 3 from the corner with 4:38 remaining to boost Plano\u2019s lead to 45-37.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe shot felt good, it felt exciting,\u201d she said. \u201cNiya (Viser) helped a lot. All of the team helped. It was a team effort and we beat Sandwich, so that\u2019s a win overall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then no one scored for the next three minutes. <\/p>\n
Finally, Sandwich junior Alayla Harris muscled up a basket inside with 1:36 to go to cut Plano\u2019s lead to 45-39. A free throw from senior Bailey Frieders reduced it 45-40, but that\u2019s as close as Sandwich would get.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made a good adjustment going into a 2-3 (zone),\u201d Sandwich coach Ray Napientek said. \u201cThe girls were getting a little bit tired, and we don\u2019t have a ton of depth. We went there trying to steal some passes, and we did, we just didn\u2019t make enough shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
She may be too young to drive a car, but driving on the court, Kozenko appeared to have the game in cruise control. <\/p>\n
\u201cHey, I\u2019m getting my license soon,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cWe just had to work as a team and have the effort and have fun. At halftime, it was \u2018keep your head up, you got this.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Kozenko scored nine points.<\/p>\n
\u201cLily was amazing tonight,\u201d Plano coach Tristan Spivey said. \u201cI told her to drive it, take it to the basket, and she was getting hers and hit a big 3 and made some free throws.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Plano's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/N3U55NSTRREW5AC2LGGTWLXT7M.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Plano’s Jadyn Long (11) looks for an open teammate while being guarded by Sandwich’s Alayla Harris (22) during Tuesday’s game in Sandwich. (Photo provided by Mark D. Parris )<\/p>\n
Plano (12-10, 4-3) only led 28-26 at the half. The Reapers beat the Indians by 30 points when they played Dec. 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time they competed with us, and they\u2019re our rival, so they always play really hard against us,\u201d Spivey said. \u201cAnd you can tell they\u2019re being well coached. They\u2019re playing hard. The first game the difference was we made seven 3s in the third quarter, and it\u2019s going to be hard to guard us when we\u2019re doing that, so we took off and left them, but this one, we knew it would be competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandwich (9-14, 1-7) led 13-9 after one quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always know it\u2019s going to be a battle at Sandwich,\u201d Spivey said. \u201cAnd they\u2019ve been competing with every team they\u2019re playing in conference, and the (Alayla) Harris (14 points, 13 rebounds) girl has been playing phenomenal, so we knew she was going to be an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before Kozenko\u2019s big shot, Viser was getting it done on both ends to help Plano somewhat pull away.<\/p>\n
Her steal and lay-in in the opening minute of the second half made it 30-26. She\u2019d get to the basket again for a basket less than a minute later.<\/p>\n
Then, after Kozenko took a charge, giving Sandwich sophomore Khloe White her third foul in the process, Viser made a great pass to senior Jadyn Long for a pretty two points and a 34-28 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just moving my feet around, anticipating the passes and all that,\u201d Viser said. \u201cI just knew she was there. I saw (Long), and I was just helping her to make it, and I knew I made a play for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Viser made 3 of 4 free throws in the final minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey step up,\u201d Spivey said, \u201cand they handle the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plano is used to tight games even though this didn\u2019t add to their seven games, including two with OT, that have been decided by five points or less. They are 3-4 in such games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been in those games all year, it seems, and we\u2019re finding ways to win those,\u201d Spivey said. \u201cI hope the girls keep it rolling. That\u2019s five in a row now. I\u2019m really proud of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Plano's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ZGZZF5GVZFDIDO6PUTLZD7IEC4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Plano’s Le’Niya Viser dribbles the ball while being guarded by Sandwich’s Khloe White during Tuesday’s game in Sandwich. (Photo provided by Mark D. Parris )<\/p>\n
Viser scored nine points, junior Cami Nunez had 11 points, and senior Jadyn Long led the Reapers with 12, getting half of them on back-to-back treys to open the second quarter and allow the Reapers to pull ahead 15-13.<\/p>\n
Plano junior Chloe Rowe made the only two shots she took, scoring four points, yet also seemingly did a bit of everything, grabbing three rebounds, dishing five assists, blocking three shots and making seven steals.<\/p>\n
Despite Plano\u2019s full-team effort, Sandwich was only a couple possessions away from tying the game until the final minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe girls played well,\u201d Napientek said. \u201cThere were some unforced turnovers, so we needed to take care of the ball. You\u2019ve got to handle the basketball, shoot the basketball and play defense, and the girls played well. Plano was prepared, and they do a nice job, and they\u2019re well coached. They hit some shots at the end, and we just couldn\u2019t catch them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandwich senior Kayden Corneils fought through an ankle injury, scoring 12 points to join Harris in double figures. White had seven points, eight rebounds, three assists and five steals.<\/p>\n
\u201cKhloe played really well,\u201d Napientek said. \u201cShe\u2019s a sophomore and is still learning and handling the basketball. She\u2019ll be a big part of things. Kayden Corneils is a big scorer, and she did well tonight, and (Alayla) Harris gets big down there. She had a double-double. She\u2019s big down there for our scoring. And Bailey Frieders (five points), she struggled a little bit tonight, but she\u2019s a big part of our senior class, and they all played well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lily Kozenko can only drive on the hardwood, but that\u2019s going to change soon. It wasn\u2019t the Plano…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[36760,160,162,161],"class_list":{"0":"post-131422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-plano","8":"tag-illinois-high-school-girls-basketball","9":"tag-plano","10":"tag-plano-headlines","11":"tag-plano-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}