Destination San Antonio
Sandiettes Primed for Title Shot
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
SAN ANTONIO – Believe it or not, the Grapeland Sandiettes are right where they expected they would be when the basketball season opened in November of 2019.
Despite last year’s heartbreaking 60-56 loss in the Class 2A State Finals to the Martin’s Mill Lady Mustangs, the Sandiettes had reason to be optimistic heading into the 2019-2020 season.
They had lost two key starters in Ragan Bowie and Hannah Chipman, but they had Tatiyana Bowie, KeKe Harris, Teira Jones and Kenya Woods coming back.
Their hopes took a blow when Coach Anthony DeCello left after last season, however, Coach Robert Payne stepped in and has kept the success of the Grapeland basketball program intact. He also brought his daughter Jessie with him and she just happened to lead the Sandiettes in scoring during the Regional Finals.
Grapeland’s road to San Antonio began by going undefeated in District 20-2A and taking home the District Championship. Bi-District saw the Sandiettes wallop the Frost Lady Polar Bears by a score of 65-25.
Next up in the Area Championship game were the Valley Mills Lady Eagles. The Lady Eagles didn’t fare much better than the Lady Polar Bears as they lost to Grapeland by a score of 84-45. The Area win moved Grapeland into the Regional Quarterfinals where they took on a tough Kerens Lady Bobcats team and won by 10 to move into the Regional Tournament.
At the Regional Tournament, the Sandiettes took down the Timpson Lady Bears by a score of 59-42 to set up a finals match-up with the Woden Lady Eagles.
Woden led by seven early on but the Sandiettes proved to be too much as they captured the Region III title by a score of 48-44.
Representing the Final Four Class 2A girls’ basketball teams, the Sandiettes will be joined at the Alamodome by the Gruver Lady Greyhounds, Mason Cowgirls and the Muenster Lady Hornets.
The first State Semifinal game will feature Grapeland taking on Gruver. The Lady Greyhounds only lost two games all year and were ranked #3 behind Martin’s Mill and #2 Vega in the final TABC poll. One loss was to the Panhandle Lady Panthers early in the season while the other loss was to Class 6A Amarillo Tascosa.
The Lady Hounds road to San Antonio began with the District 1-2A Championship. In Bi-District they dispatched of Memphis 89-27 and in Area they took out Farwell, 65-26.
In the Regional Quarterfinals, Wellington game them a game but in the end, the Lady Hounds won by a final of 49-40. In the Semifinals, Gruver faced Stamford and beat them by 11 to advance to the Regional Finals where they avenged one of their losses as they took down Panhandle, 34-27.
Despite the low point total from the Regional Finals, Gruver can score, but the Lady Greyhounds’ offense can also be held in check. Even though Gruver is in West Texas, they will not have faced a defense quite like the whirlwind the Sandiettes will hit them with.
The game tips-off at 8:30 am on Friday, March 6 and the early start should play right in to the hands of the Sandiettes. Grapeland will run and gun while Gruver will struggle to keep up.
The second State Semifinal game will see the Mason Cowgirls take on the Muenster Lady Hornets. Mason is returning to the Alamodome and hopes to extract a little revenge on last year’s loss to the Sandiettes in the State Semifinals, where Grapeland took them out, 61-54.
Mason’s road to San Antonio began with a runner-up finish to the San Saba Lady Armadillos in District 27-2A. The Cowgirls beat Granger 56-24 in Bi-District, but barely escaped Snook in the Area Round by a score of 40-37.
The Regional Quarters were a lot easier on Mason as they took out Harper, 50-28. In the Regional Semis, the Cowgirls bested Weimar by a score of 42-26 and then squeaked by their district rival – San Saba – in the finals by a score of 33-32.
The Cowgirls’ State Semifinal opponent may be the most talked about team as they begin play on Friday morning and that’s the Muenster Lady Hornets. The reason being is Muenster defeated the two-time defending State Champions – the Martin’s Mill Lady Mustangs.
Martin’s Mill had not lost a since the second the second game of the 2017-2018 season when Brock defeated them by a score of 56-0. As mentioned earlier, the Lady Mustangs also clipped the Sandiettes in the State Finals last year.
Muenster began their journey to the State Tournament with the District 11-2A Championship. They defeated Lindsay 71-13 in Bi-District and then took out Goldthwaite in Area, 45-28.
In the Regional Quarters, the Lady Hornets defeated the Lady Pirates of Collinsville by a score of 54-44. That win moved them into the Semis against a solid Hawkins team but Muenster won by 24 to set up their showdown with Martin’s Mill.
It was close throughout but in the end, the Lady Hornets punched their ticket to San Antonio with a 47-45 win over the Lady Mustangs.
Look for Muenster to build on the momentum from their Regional Finals win and take down Mason to set a Grapeland vs. Muenster final on Saturday morning.
The Sandiettes will extract a little payback on Muenster for knocking the boys out of the state tournament the last two times they went.
The Lady Hornets will give the Sandiettes a hard time in the Finals, but in the end Grapeland’s experience and speed will be too much for Muenster to overcome as the Sandiettes win by 12.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
