A familiar foe ended the varsity girls run in the playoffs. Leander pushed past the Raiders with a 43-39 win Tuesday, moving onto the regional tournament.

“We just had an off night,” senior Deja Beechum said. “It wasn’t our game plan like we intended it to be. Leander showed up to play, and we showed up to play just a little too late.”

The team had a strong start to the game and was leading 14-8 early in the second period. But the Lions took charge, knocking down 11 points in the second and taking advantage of Raider turnovers and fouls. Leander had a slim 19-18 lead at halftime that they never relinquished.

In the third, Leander hit two threes and capitalized on Rouse mistakes to extend their lead to 12 points. The varsity girls tried to come back, closing the gap to five points with three minutes left. But costly turnovers and missed foul shots made it impossible for the Raiders to catch up. Leander ran down the clock in the final two minutes, forcing the Raiders to foul to get the ball back.  Leander ended up winning by four, ending the girls’ season short of their playoff goal.

“I feel like we could have won and we could have gone further,” senior Lauren Stovall said. “But there’s a lot of factors. We kind of got some bad refs, and we didn’t play to our full potential like we usually do. It’s really sad that it’s over.”

The girls reached the third round after winning their first two playoff games. Before a large home crowd, the team dominated the first round game with a 77-12 bi-district win over Reagan, Feb. 10.

“It was a really good win,” senior Baylee Peck said. “I feel like having one of the top districts really prepared us for playoffs and the solid win only reiterated how strong our district is. The win set the tone we wanted for the rest of playoffs.”

The girls played again at home Friday, Feb. 14 and won the area game over Brackenridge, 77-42.

“The game started out just full of energy,” senior Mariah Merriweather said. “It was just an amazing kind of feeling. It wasn’t just one person, it was within everyone.”

The girls finished with an overall record of 26-9 that included the district title and reaching the third round of playoffs.

“We had one great season, we made history this year,” Beechum said. “We were first team to win district championship and we made it to the third round of playoffs, it was just a remarkable season this year.”