Plano East sophomore Kennedy Borders (1) smiles as she holds up the bi-district championship trophy Monday. Photo by Victor Tapia / C&S Media
By David Wolman
Plano East head girls’ basketball coach Derrick Richardson has preached the same mantra to his players that he learned while he worked as an assistant coach under former Plano West head boys’ coach Anthony Morgan.
“When it’s going good, play defense. When it’s going bad, play defense,” he said.
So, with the Lady Panthers facing a five-point deficit entering the fourth quarter of Monday night’s Class 6A-Division I bi-district playoff game against Coppell, Richardson told his players to remain confident, believe in themselves and continue to play good defense.
That message was well-received.
In a game in which the Lady Panthers struggled with their shooting, Plano East’s defense ignited a 24-10 scoring run during the fourth quarter, a frame in which the Lady Panthers got a perfect eight-of-eight performance at the free-throw line from sophomore Kennedy Borders in a 49-40 win from The Colony High School.
“The girls dug down deep and fought,” Richardson said. “They showed some resilience and scrappiness. I feel like that we’ve grown in that regard down the stretch of the season. I think we saw when we play hard and are physical, that we can come back. I challenged them at halftime to do that. We didn’t do that the start of the second half, but we fought, and we never gave up. I told them after the game that we would’ve had lost that game two months ago by 20 points.”
For more on this story see the February 13, 2025 print, or digital edition of the Murphy Monitor. Subscribe today and support local journalism in your community.
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