Sandiettes Fly into Regional Finals

Grapeland Defeats Woden, 53-44

By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter

BRYAN – It’s been over 15 years since the Grapeland Sandiettes made it to the Regional Semifinals in the UIL Basketball playoffs. The year was 2003 and the Sandiettes lost to the Hawkins Lady Hawks in the that round by a final score of 52-49.

This year, however, Grapeland made a return trip to the Regional Semifinals and the Sandiettes set out to prove they were not a ‘one and done’ team. On Friday, Feb. 22, Grapeland did just that as Sandiettes defeated the Woden Lady Eagles by a final score of 53-44 to advance to the Regional Finals.

The Sandiettes came into the game with an overall record of 28-6 and a #12 ranking in the Feb. 11, final regular season Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) poll. The Lady Eagles, on the other hand were ranked at #10 and had an overall mark of 28-5.

Something had to give as the two teams tipped off at 6 pm on Friday night and it appeared it was the Lady Eagles’ stamina that gave way as the Sandiettes jumped out to an early lead and forced Woden to call a timeout before a minute had run off the game clock.

Grapeland kept the Lady Eagles off-balance throughout the first quarter as the Sandiettes’ press frustrated Woden at every turn. As the final minute of the quarter ticked off, Grapeland worked the ball around the perimeter before going inside to Teira Jones to put the Sandiettes up by a score of 18-8 after the first period of play.

The Sandiettes points came on a pair of threes from Ragan Bowie along with a two. Jones added four while Hannah Chipman, KeKe Harris and Kenya Woods all had two.

Meagan Johnson led Woden with four points while Reese Taylor had two. Both Chelsea Brookshire and Shelby Brookshire converted one of two from the line to round out the Lady Eagles first quarter scoring.

Woden opened up the second quarter on a 7-0 run which ended when Chipman was whistled for a very controversial foul. The call seemed to motivate the Sandiettes and when Woods hit a short jumper to make the score 20-15, Grapeland seemed to have gotten past any early game jitters.

Bowie hit a three at the 2:30 mark, made a steal at the other end of the court and fed Chipman for an easy basket to push the Grapeland lead out to 11. With 1:30 left in the half, Harris knocked down a three-pointer to make the halftime score 33-19, as neither team scored in the closing seconds of the quarter.

Chipman paced the Sandiettes with seven points in the quarter, while both Bowie and Harris hit from behind the arc. Woods added two points to her total as the Sandiettes went into the locker room up by 14.

S. Brookshire paced the Lady Eagles with seven points, while Briley Watkins hit a three and C. Brookshire converted one of two from the line.

After the break, the Lady Eagles began to whittle away at the Sandiettes’ lead. Woden outrebounded Grapeland by a 2-1 margin in the third quarter but only managed to trim the lead to nine.

Both S. Brookshire and Johnson were nearly unstoppable for Woden in the third quarter as both dropped in eight. C. Brookshire also had two in the period.

Once again, Chipman led the Sandiettes in the quarter with eight points, while Bowie hit her fourth three of the game. Harris converted two from the charity stripe to help give Grapeland a 46-37 lead with eight minutes left in the contest.

Woden managed to cut the lead to 46-38 with 7:07 remaining but free throws from the Sandiettes pushed the lead back to nine. With time running out on their season, the Lady Eagles were forced to foul.

Neither team scored between the four and five minute mark. While Woden continued to foul, the Sandiettes continued to milk the clock when they could. Grapeland found itself in the bonus with 3:51 left to play and as one Lady Eagle after another fouled out, the Sandiettes hit just enough shots from the line to keep Woden at arm’s length as they held on to win the game, 53-44.

On the game, Shelby Brookshire led the Lady Eagles in scoring with 18 points while Meagan Johnson had 16. Chelsea Brookshire added four while both Reese Taylor and Briley Watkins had three to close out the Woden point production.

The Sandiettes were led by Hannah Chipman with a game-high 19 points and Ragan Bowie with 15. KeKe Harris dropped in seven while both Teira Jones and Kenya Woods netted six to round out the Grapeland scoring.

The win moved the Sandiettes into the Regional Finals against the Marlin Lady Bulldogs.

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].