Lady Leps Overwhelm Austin Eastside 80-13 in District Basketball Opener
Tuesday was just the fourth game of the season for the La Grange girls basketball team, but they are already in district play.
Even without a bunch of predistrict polish, the Lady Leps look just fine.
The La Grange girls jumped out to a 29-0 lead Tuesday before eventually winning 80-13 over Austin Eastside.
“We’ve got things to work on, but it’s always good to win the first one and then figure it out as you go,” said La Grange head coach Heath Golan, whose team improved to 2-2 overall with the win. “It does feel weird we’re already here in district.”
Eastside didn’t score until 3:20 left before halftime.
Every La Grange player scored and the Lady Leps had four players in double figures.
Senior Ariel Thompson led the way with 17 points. Sophomore varsity newcomers Maddi Fritz and Camille Gonzalez scored 14 and 10 respectively and senior Megan Brothers scored 10.
“This was an easy game, but it helps us practice what we need to learn for upcoming games. We’ve got a big one next week (next Tuesday at Giddings),” said Thompson.
The Lady Leps are trying to duplicate, or even build upon, the success they had last season when they tied a school record for wins, going 30-5, and won district and bidistrict titles.
But La Grange graduated five really good seniors from that team and is still in the process of learning to fill those shoes.
“Some of the lower classmen, they can keep up with us. We lost people from last year but I feel like we can go as far or farther than last year,” Thompson said.
La Grange started four players who saw significant minutes last season – Thompson, Brothers, senior Kailee Jones and junior Aysia Grant. Joining that starting group is varsity newcomer, sophomore Keslyn Davis.
“We’re going to have to get younger girls to step up. They are getting there, getting a little more confident,” Golan said. “We’ve got some depth were we can sub in and sub out if people aren’t hitting their shots, so we’ll have people that can step up and play.”
That depth was on display Tuesday as La Grange continued to expand their lead no matter what combination of players were on the court.
Other returning varsity players for La Grange include seniors Ashlynn Golan and Kalyn Hernandez. Other varsity newcomers include sophomore Alicia Tisdell and junior Lyric Sampson, who scored eight.
All the players at Tuesday’s game were wearing masks even while playing.
Thompson said it was not as difficult as it might seem.
“It is harder to breath, but then again you can control your breathing better, if that makes sense,” Thompson said.
Dec. 8
La Grange girls 80,
Austin Eastside 13
La Grange 20 18 24 18 – 80
Eastside 0 6 3 4 – 13
La Grange scoring: Grant 4, Tisdell 2, Jones 2, Gonzalez 10, Sampson 8, Fritz 14, Golan 4, Thompson 17, Hernandez 5, Davis 4, Brothers 10.
Eastside: Madoc 4, Cruz 9.
Record: Leps are 2-2 overall and 1-0 in district.
JV: La Grange 51, Eastside 3 Leading scorer: Harold 18
Freshmen: Giddings 42, La Grange 14