<\/p>\n
Fort Worth Southwest Christian girls basketball won the Class 5A TAPPS state title Friday. [Clayton Freeman\/Florida Times-Union]<\/p>\n
Basketball Hoop Stock Jax<\/p>\n
Clayton Freeman\/Florida Times-Un<\/p>\n
USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n
ROBINSON<\/p>\n
Winning a championship is all about peaking at the right time.<\/p>\n
The ability to finish and having a never-give-up attitude helps as well.<\/p>\n
The Fort Worth Southwest Christian School Eagles girls basketball team rallied from a 10-point deficit with just under 4 minutes remaining, closing on a 13-0 run, for a stunning 46-43 triumph over the San Antonio St. Mary\u2019s Hall Lady Barons. The victory was for the TAPPS 5A Girls basketball crown on Friday at Robinson High School.<\/p>\n
It was the fourth TAPPS state title for Southwest Christian, all in the last seven years. (The Eagles also won titles in 2024, 2021 and 2020.)<\/p>\n
Southwest Christian held a 31-27 advantage before St. Mary\u2019s ended the third period converting a pair of free throws to narrow the Eagles\u2019 lead to two points heading into the wild fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
St. Mary\u2019s went on a 14-2 spurt to begin the final period, and the run left SCS trailing 43-33 around the halfway point of the final quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told my team to stay focused,\u201d said Southwest Christian head coach Fred Jones. \u201cStay positive. Find a way to get back in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
His team listened. Serenity Massey began the comeback by converting a pair of free throws. Then Maley Campbell drained a 3-pointer that sliced the deficit to five.<\/p>\n
Massey then made the key defensive play of the game. She drew the fifth foul at the 2 minute, 47 mark on St. Mary\u2019s freshman phenom Ava Wineglass, who is considered one of the top prospects statewide in the 2029 class.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take a lot of pride in my defense,\u201d said Massey. \u201cAs well as my offense.\u201d Massey finished with a team-high 18 points that included nine free throws (9 of 10 overall and 6 of 6 in the critical fourth period). \u201cMaking those free throws in the fourth quarter was huge,\u201d noted Jones. \u201cWe needed those, and Serenity Massey is a clutch player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Jones had high praise for Massey, a four-year starter. \u201cSerenity is such a hard worker,\u201d said Jones. \u201cConsummate teammate. Our defensive stopper. Just a great all-around player.<\/p>\n
Massey then sank four straight charity tosses that got the Eagles to within one.<\/p>\n
Allyson Schultz, with 20.5 seconds left, gave the Eagles the lead with a close-range basket. \u201cJust amazing,\u201d said a jubilant Schultz. \u201cI was able to get a good angle at the net and was able to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campbell added a pair of free throws with 5.8 ticks remaining that extend the lead and made for the final margin of victory. A desperation midcourt heave by St. Mary\u2019s clanged off the backboard and rim, and the Eagles players stormed the court in celebration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis team came together all year long,\u201d said Campbell, who registered 12 points in the win. \u201cAnd we peaked at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campbell, an honorable mention all-state selection last season, had a game-high 14 points, including four three-pointers in the Eagles\u2019 semifinal win over Austin Hyde Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis team is just so resilient,\u201d said coach Jones. \u201cSo glad for this senior group and the whole team. All their hard work paid off big time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The third seed in district one, Southwest Christian (32-8) certainly hit its playoff stride, winning its 10th straight game. \u201cWe lost some games early in season, played a tough schedule, and lost some district games. But that prepared us for the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
SCS convincingly handled Austin Hyde Park, 50-33, in the semifinal, making seven 3-pointers \u2014 including a trio in the first quarter by freshman Makay Campbell \u2014 avenging a loss to the team that eliminated the Eagles in last year\u2019s area round.<\/p>\n
Massey, a senior, along with junior Maley Campbell and freshman Makay Campbell, were selected to the 10-player all-tournament team.<\/p>\n
No. 5 in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) final rankings on February 9th, Southwest Christian, which began the playoffs with a 48-33 around triumph over district foe and No. 4-ranked Bullard Brook Hill, then upset top-ranked and defending champion Midland Christian School, 34-31, in the regional.<\/p>\n
SCS had twice fallen to MCS, another district opponent, 41-27 and 41-33, during the regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we were actually the better team,\u201d said Jones of the two regular-season losses to MCS. \u201cThe ball just did not bounce our way in those games.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was the swan song for San Antonio St. Mary\u2019s Hall for TAPPS, which will transition to the SPC next season, as will San Antonio-TMI.<\/p>\n
San Antonio St. Mary\u2019s Hall (29-8), No. 8 in the TABC rankings, was making its third overall state tourney appearance \u2014 all in the last four years \u2014 and seeking its first state title. It had never won a TAPPS playoff game prior to 2023.<\/p>\n
St. Mary\u2019s Hall defeated Houston Second Baptist 40-33 to reach the championship game.<\/p>\n
St. Mary\u2019s Hall was led by Wineglass, who recorded a team-high 18 points before fouling out. Wineglass, a freshman, averaged a double-double this season: 16.7 points per game and 10.6 rebounds per game, entering the semifinals.<\/p>\n
Senior Beya Chase, a four-year starter, added 12 for St. Mary\u2019s hall. Chase became the program\u2019s all-time leading scorer last December and is headed to play at Emerson College, a NCAA Division-III school in Boston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Worth Southwest Christian girls basketball won the Class 5A TAPPS state title Friday. [Clayton Freeman\/Florida Times-Union] Basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117,33522,73962,73963,8081],"class_list":{"0":"post-185064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-fort-worth","9":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","10":"tag-fort-worth-news","11":"tag-high-school-basketball","12":"tag-southwest-christian-girls-basketball","13":"tag-southwest-christian-state-championship","14":"tag-state-title"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185064","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=185064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}