By GRAHAM POWELL
Leader sportswriter
The Cabot ladies opened the annual Mansfield Spring Creek Barbeque Invitational tournament in Mansfield, Texas with a dominant 51-33 win over Fort Worth, Texas school North Crowley on Thursday, but lost Friday morning to top-seeded Mansfield Timberview 43-27.
Cabot (7-3) trailed Mansfield Timberview (15-5) 23-17 at halftime yesterday, but the Lady Wolves outscored the Lady Panthers 14-2 in the third quarter to take a double-digit lead into the fourth period.
Timberview is one of the toughest teams in the state of Texas, as four players on the Lady Wolves’ roster have signed Division-I scholarships to schools Kansas, Texas Tech, Arizona and Southern Methodist University.
“We did a really good job against them in the first half,” said Cabot assistant coach Charles Ruple. “They play as good a defense as anybody we’ve seen in the last two years. They play man-to-man and they press you.”
Sophomore guard CoCo Calhoon led the Lady Panthers offensively against the tournament’s No. 1 seed. She finished the game with 13 points.
In the tournament opener Thursday night, the Lady Panthers were tied with North Crowley 10-10 at the end of the first quarter, but outscored the Fort Worth, Texas school by seven in the second quarter and nine in the third to pull away.
At the half, Cabot led 28-21 and 41-25 at the start of the fourth. The final period was played more evenly as Cabot emptied its bench, but the Lady Panthers still outscored North Crowley 10-8 in the period to set the final score.
Cabot used 13 players in its rotation Thursday and nine different Lady Panthers scored in the game. The Lady Panthers normally use an eight-player rotation, but wanted to get other players some valuable experience and keep the starters fresh for the tournament because Cabot will end the Texas invitational Saturday with four games under its belt.
“We’re in pretty good position with the young players we have,” Ruple said. “We’ve seen some outstanding competition and we really played well in the first game and that gave us a chance to play Timberview. It’s all mental. We’re hoping we can leave here a little bit better and we hope that’ll carry over.”
Calhoon earned leading scorer honors in Thursday’s game as well. She finished with 12 points. Fellow sophomore and starting point guard Leighton Taylor also finished in double figures. She scored 11 points.
Anna Sullivan scored seven points. Juniors Alyssa Hamilton and Danielle McWilliams scored six points each. Maddie Willhite scored three. Sophomores Sarah Davis, Claire Eifling and Lily Sinclair added two points apiece.
The Lady Panthers played Springdale Har-Ber yesterday after deadlines, and will close the tournament with an 8 a.m. game today. Cabot will open the New Year on the road at Morrilton next Friday.
