Kilgore girls play Lindale at TJC tonight
HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
By MITCH LUCAS sports@kilgorenewsherald.com

The Kilgore High School Lady Bulldogs won't go into the UIL Class 4A basketball playoffs with a win - they lost a playoff-seeding game to Nacogdoches on Saturday evening at Henderson.

But the Lady Bulldogs are still playing, back in the postseason for the first time since the 2004-05 season, and they'll open that postseason tonight at Tyler Junior College at 7:30 against Lindale, the second game of a doubleheader.

Kilgore and Nacogdoches finished the regular season, and the District 17-4A schedule, with identical 12-2 district records. They shared the district title, but for playoff purposes, the district champion gets a first-round bye.

That game was played at Henderson on Saturday night, and KHS came out on the short end, 63-53.

Tai'Shea Reese led the Lady Bulldogs with 18 points. Raven Wiley had 11 points, and Ashia Kelly and Troylisha Orange each had nine. JaMorgan Davis led Nac with 16, and Bre Agnew added 12.

For her part, coach Davia Garrett is looking at Kilgore's situation as the old glass half-full, rather than halfempty. She pointed out that Kilgore split the district championship with Nac (the Lady 'Dogs' first district title since that '04-'05 season, but their third since 2002), and set a school record for number of district wins in a single season.

Also, this senior class, which includes Reese, Kelly, Orange and Shae Morgan, makes up the bulk of the Lady Bulldogs, and will be remembered as something special, she said.

"A lot of our girls are disappointed about Saturday night," Garrett said. "But I didn't look at it as just a loss. It's always heartbreaking to lose. But they played well. They could have laid down at any time and just let Nac have it. But I told them, 'It's not like we're going home.' This might be kind of like our loss to Whitehouse: we needed it to regroup, to re-focus."

One thing the Lady 'Dogs will be working on in practice is free throw shooting. Kilgore went 16-of-32 in Saturday night's loss to Nac. The Lady Dragons also hit about 50 percent (they went 7-of-15) but took far less.

"We've taken about as many free throws in district play this year as we did all of last season combined," Garrett said. "We've got to start hitting them."

Kilgore's girls missed the playoffs the last two seasons, but made the postseason three straight years (the 2002- 2004 seasons). In the 2003-04 season, KHS made it to the final 16 in Class 4A.

But no one on the Kilgore squad is worried about history this week, unless it's re-writing it. It won't be easy, though: If the Lady Bulldogs were to beat Lindale, they'd face the No. 1 team in the 4A bracket, Frisco, in the area round this weekend.