Burnet girls basketball faces China Spring for a bi-district title

CAPTION: The Burnet Lady Dawgs celebrate winning the District 24-4A title this season and enter the Class 4A playoffs as the district’s No. 1 seed. Courtesy photo

The Burnet High School girls basketball team continues preparations to face China Spring for a bi-district title to begin the Class 4A playoffs.

The two teams tip off at 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12, at Hamilton High School, 611 S. College St. The contest is part of a doubleheader. The two play last. Adults pay $5 and students pay $3. There are no advance sales.

Burnet, which is the District 24-4A champion, is the visiting team.

The Lady Dawgs beat the Lady Cougars (10-23, 4-6 fourth District 23-4A) 43-26 Dec. 15 at The Doghouse.

“I’m sure they’re better now,” head coach Rick Gates said. “They’re going to be well coached and prepared. We’ve been watching other games other than that one. I know they’ll be ready.”

China Spring is paced by junior guard Kirsten Jewell, who dropped in 19 points during the loss to Burnet.

“She scores a lot of points for them,” Gates said. “She can score, attack the basket or from the 3-point line.”

The coach said his team understands what’s at stake as they turn their attention to the third part of its season.

“If they win, they advance,” he said. “We have to go win. They’re not going to give us the victory. In the playoffs, it’s one game at a time, and we’ll do everything we can to give ourselves the best chance to win.”

Burnet is entering this contest with momentum thanks to crushing Lago Vista 58-20 Feb. 6.

The Lady Dawgs led 13-10 after the first quarter and Gates used the minute of rest before the start of the second period to emphasize two points.

“Thirteen is good,” he recalled saying. “Don’t give them 10 points.”

He was thrilled to see his players become stingier on the defensive end where the Lady Vikings scored 3 in the second period, 3 in the third and 4 in the fourth.

“We did a good job defensively in only giving up 10 points the rest of the game,” the coach said. “I was really happy with the defensive effort. We put points on the board and executed offensively. A lot of players played a lot of minutes.”

Meanwhile, the Lady Dawgs didn’t let up on the offense either, building a 26-13 lead at the half that went to 44-16 after three periods.

“We scored some off our defense and in transition,” Gates said. “We scoring buckets around the basket as well as the perimeter. I thought it was a well-balanced offensive attack.”

Senior center Zaria Solis led with 17 points followed by junior guard Sydney Lough with 16, junior forward Sierra Schaeffer and senior athlete MaeSyn Gay each scored 6, junior center Cydney Robison added 5, senior guard Journey Denton contributed 3, and sophomore forward Wrigley Mulhollan and senior forward Alexis Leatherwood each finished with 2.

He called the outcome the best way to honor the class of 2024 and the parents to who give so much to the program.

“We celebrate the parents and the seniors at the last home game,” he said.

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