The Plano East girls’ basketball team poses for pictures with the gold ball trophy after defeating Keller Timber Creek 65-47 in the Class 6A Division I Region I semifinals from Lewisville High School on Tuesday, Feb. 18. Photo by Tina Lopez / C&S Media
By David Wolman
LEWISVILLE – Plano East freshman Arianna Robinson read a newspaper article Tuesday that said how the Keller Timber Creek girls’ basketball team practiced with their boys’ team to help prepare the Lady Falcons to play against her.
“I took that as a compliment,” she said. “I feel that I play with the pace that a lot of boys play with. I don’t know much about their boys’ team, but I play at a really good pace and try and keep everything under control.”
Robinson dominated at times, including a play in the third quarter in which she dribbled the ball behind her back before making a euro step move to the basket for a layup, on her way to tallying a game-high 19 points.
But during Tuesday’s 65-47 Class 6A Region I-6A semifinals win from Lewisville High School, Plano East showed that it was more than Robinson. Sophomore Kennedy Borders rode a strong second half to finish with 17 points. Senior Sema Udo, a four-year varsity player and a UT-San Antonio signee, had 15 points. Junior Hailey Reed added to Plano East’s scoring balanced with 14 points, including four 3-pointers.
“Everybody kind of focuses on (Robinson),” said Derrick Richardson, Plano East head coach. “The Dallas Morning News had an article where they were practicing against their boys to get ready for her. But Kennedy has been solid for two years. Sema is going to work really hard. Hailey stepped up tonight. It’s good to see some balance.”
Because of Plano East’s balance, the Lady Panthers are heading to the regional final for the third time, and for the first time since 2021. Plano East will take on North Crowley at Birdville ISD’s W.G. Thomas Coliseum on Friday. Game time is to be determined.
This feat comes one year after Plano East (23-13) failed to make the playoffs.
“I really don’t have words for it,” Udo said. “It’s really exciting. We just really fought through everything. We didn’t start off the season great. We didn’t finish off district great. But we still persevered. I’m just really proud of my team.”
For all the emotions that were experienced by Plano East after their 48-44 upset win over Class 6A’s No. 7 South Grand Prairie last week, head coach Derrick Richardson expected those good vibes to carry over into Tuesday’s game against Keller Timber Creek.
But following a sluggish first quarter that saw Timber Creek jumped out to a 13-10 lead behind three 3-pointers, Richardson used the timeout between the end of the first quarter and beginning of the second quarter to remind his team that it needed to start playing their style of ball instead of settling for the first shot that was available.
Plano East heeded the words of their head coach, using good inside-out ball movement to free up teammates for open shots.
Midway through the second quarter, Borders blocked a shot, ran up the court, received a long pass from Robinson, then passed the ball to a wide-open Udo, who made a 3-pointer from the right corner for a 25-17 Plano East lead with 3:55 left in the first half.
Plano East finished a strong second quarter with Reed making a 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining to give the Lady Panthers a 30-22 lead at intermission.
“We just settled in,” Richardson said. “They were packing it in and crowding the paint and inviting us to shoot jumpers early on. We just fell victim to the trip and settled too much for first shots. After the first quarter, we talked about that in between quarters, and we were hitting 3s because we weren’t settling. We were playing through the offense and playing inside-out.”
Reed’s 3-point shooting was an added bonus for Plano East. Richardson said that she was the top 3-point shooter for the Lady Panthers, percentagewise, in the second half of the season. To begin the third quarter, she picked up where she left off to end the first half, making her third 3 just 88 seconds into the frame before adding a fourth 3 and two free throws later in the game.
“Recently, I haven’t been shooting really well,” she said. “But since we knew that we needed to win all of these games, I made sure that I was in the gym getting my shots up, and tonight, I proved that.”
For as well as Plano East played offensively, the Lady Panthers also turned up their defensive pressure as the game went along, allowing them to outscore the Lady Falcons 55-34 over the game’s final three quarters of play.
Now it’s onto the regional final, where the Lady Panthers will look to advance to the state semifinals for the first time.
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