Burnet girls basketball outlasts Jarrell

The Burnet High School girls basketball team defeated Jarrell 46-43 Jan. 14.

The victory puts the Lady Dawgs (12-14, 3-1) in a three-way tie for first in District 24-4A with Salado (16-11, 3-1) and the Lady Cougars (22-6, 3-1).

The two teams played to a 9-9 tie in the first quarter then Jarrell dropped in 16 points and limited Burnet to 8 for a 25-17 advantage at the half.

“We struggled early in the game,” Burnet head coach Doug Messer said. “Part of that is the energy level. Jarrell is quick. To me, they’re the fastest team we’ve played in district. In the second quarter, we had a letdown.”

But the Lady Dawgs fought back in the third quarter to tie the game 32-32 going into the final stanza.

Both squads matched each other basket for basket until Jarrel led 41-40.

Then Burnet went on a 5-0 run for a 45-41 advantage late in the period.

“When we got the lead, we held it,” Messer said.

Jarrell is led by sisters Aniya, a sophomore, and Erica Taylor, a freshman. Aniya, who was the district’s Offensive Player of the year last season, scored 20 points. She was a perfect 10 for 10 from the foul line and hit two 3-pointers as part of her scoring.

“She got by our initial defense several times,” the coach said. “She can step back and shoot it on the dime. We tried to make it extremely hard.”

Erica added 11 points thanks in part to making 5 of 6 free throws and both of her 3-point attempts.

“They have two outstanding scorers,” Messer said. “What a future they’re going to have. Aniya Taylor is an outstanding player. She is going to be up there. She’s a good offensive player, a good basketball player. There’s no stopping some of these kids. They’re good scorers. Hopefully you can contain them.”

Messer assigned junior Journey Denton and senior Aubrey Mathews to the Taylor sisters.

“They did an outstanding job,” he said. “We played great team defense on them.”

As a team, the Lady Cougars connected on 18 of 22 free throws for 82 percent, two 2-point and seven 3-point field goals.

Burnet made twelve 2-point field goals, two 3-point field goals, and 16 free throws.

Senior point guard Sydney Lough scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. She scored 13 of Burnet’s 17 first-half points.

Senior forward Sierra Schaefer scored 10 points, while senior center Cydney Robison dropped in 8, freshman forward Emma Hashbarger added 6, and Denton and junior forward Wrigley Mulhollan had 1 each.

Burnet is at Lampasas Friday, Jan. 17, with the junior varsity playing at 5 p.m., the varsity at 6:30 p.m. and the freshmen at 8 p.m.