Flatonia Girls Down La Grange Powered by Big Night from Sodek

The Flatonia girls basketball team came to La Grange Friday and got a statementmaking win over a much bigger school, beating the Lady Leps 47-40.

“I’m excited about the win, but the play in general was not what we wanted,” said firstyear Flatonia coach Bethany McLeod. “We’ve been talking a lot about rebounding and we didn’t do that well. We have a lot of room for improvement.” But Flatonia was still able to prevail thanks to a quick start (they led 19-10 after the first quarter) and a big game from sophomore Summer Sodek, who scored a gamehigh 27 points and also had 14 rebounds.

“We get better playing better teams like this,” Sodek said.

“She does a great job of seeing the floor, handling the ball, handling pressure,” McLeod said of Sodek. “She always scores a lot but also shares the ball well.”

Danielle Vinklarek added 10 points for the Lady Bulldogs, who improved to 3-1 with the win.

La Grange, meanwhile, fell to 1-2 with the loss.

“We had as bad a first quarter as we’ve had in a couple of years probably,” said La Grange head coach Health Golan. “And it was tough to dig our way out of that hole.”

But they almost did it.

After Flatonia led by 10 at halftime, La Grange chipped away throughout the second half, and Campbell Cooper’s two free-throws with 2:42 left in the game trimmed the Lady Bulldog’s lead to just 40-39.

But La Grange couldn’t finish the comeback and Flatonia scored seven of the game’s last eight points.

Cooper, a freshman, was a big part of La Grange’s comeback.

After not scoring in the first half, she scored 16 after halftime.

“She was cold the first half and we told her to stay confident,” Golan said. “A lot of times younger players will hang their heads when things don’t go their way, but she’s not going to do that. She’s got a scorer’s mentality. When that first one fell in the second half you could see the confidence growing.”

La Grange’s only two seniors, Xeriah Jimenez and Tori Harold, scored seven and six points, respectively.

The Lady Leps are scheduled to play at Gonzales Monday and then at tournaments in Schulenburg and Brazos over the next two weeks.

“We’re going to get in a lot of quality games and that’s important because we are still learning to play with each other,” Golan said.

Flatonia, which next plays Tuesday at home against Yorktown, is even younger than La Grange. They don’t have any seniors.

“And we’ve only got two juniors. The rest are sophomores and freshmen,” McLeod said. “So it’s definitely a growing process, but it’s exciting to know that this will be the team we have next year as well, so we’re only going to get better.”

Last year the Lady Bulldogs went to the second round of the playoffs, but they are hungry for more.

“We have great team chemistry,” Sodek said. “I expect us to go farther and be better than we were last year.”

11/17/23

Flatonia girls 47, La Grange 40

La Grange 10 8 12 10 – 40 Flatonia 19 9 7 12 – 47 La Grange scoring: Campbell Cooper- 16, Xeriah Jimenez- 7, Tori Harold- 6, Kylie Trlicek- 4, Landri Hernandez- 3, Maci Collier- 2, Cara Homer- 2 Flatonia scoring: Summer Sodek 27, Danielle Vinklarek 10, Kalen Scott 4, Katelin Sullivan 4, Elzah Herrera 2.

Records: La Grange is 1-2; Flatonia is 3-1.

More Local Hoops Action

11/17/23

Fayetteville girls 45, Schulenburg 24

Lady Horns 4 8 6 6 – 24 Fayetteville 10 17 11 7 – 45 Schulenburg scoring: Kaylee Beyer 5, Fay Kutac 4, Gracie Burton 8, Alana Herzik 3, Chayse Deagen 2, Arianna Vincent 2.

Fayetteville scoring: Kayme Schley 14, Harper Mau 10, Cambree Denham 8, Rylie Dyer 7, Marissa Rohde 4, Peyton Jurecka 2.

Records: Fayetteville is 1-0. Schulenburg is 0-3.

11/18/23 Brenham boys 62, La Grange 36

No individual stats available Record: Leps are 1-2 11/17/23 Mumford boys 71, Fayetteville 69

No individual stats available Record: Fayetteville is 1-1