SAN ANTONIO - The Columbus High School girls basketball team was defeated by Holliday High School in the UIL state girls basketball tournament March 2 at the Alamodome in San Antonio by a final score of 59-40. The Lady Cardinals struggled to get their offense going throughout this game and Holliday's shooting accuracy was on, along with their ability to crash the boards and make layups. "Just one of those things, got to give them credit," said Columbus head girls basketball coach Mike Albers.
"They were kind of the opposite of us. They made most of their shots in that first half for sure and we didn't, so that was definitely a big factor. We kind of played that second half the way we have all year. We were really just a go-get em', fighting type of team where we caused things to happen. We just didn't maybe get after it as much in the first half like we should have. Second half, I thought we did cause some things to happen. Got a little momentum there, making some big shots and stuff. We had to get out there and do the things we did right during the season and hopefully it would work in the second half, but just ran out of time." Columbus junior shooting guard Karlee Mathis scored 11 points for the outing and hit a trio of three-pointers. "It's a whole group effort and the community supports us 100%," Mathis said on making it to state. "We couldn't ask for better families, a better team, and a better coach." Holliday took a 17-3 lead on a layup at the 2:40 mark in the first quarter after a few jumpers and a few layups. Columbus scored their first points on a three in the corner from Mathis that was followed by a free throw each from junior center Ally Tribe and senior point guard Treasure Upson. The Lady Eagles converted a couple more makes to go ahead 21-5 at the end of the first quarter.
Lady Cardinals senior forward Madyson Carter hit a three-pointer near the top of the key for the first points of the second quarter, then Holliday went on a 6-0 run with a put back layup and four free throws for a 29-9 advantage at halftime.
Even though both teams went back and forth in the third quarter, Columbus was able to make up ground with their shooting from Mathis and Tribe's scoring down low. Tribe scored a layup on a dish from Upson to start the quarter before the tradeoff. This series of baskets included two threes and nice fadeaway jumper near the baseline from Mathis, while Holliday capitalized on their scoring with a mixture of jumpers, layups, and free throws to make it 39-25 at the end of the third quarter.
Tribe made another connec tion with Upson on a feed for a layup to start the fourth quarter and make it 39-27. This was followed by a bunch of baskets from Holliday's 6'3" senior star player Jalynn Bristow, who logged 35 total points and 18 rebounds for the match and hit a short jumper with 4:40 to go to put it at 47-29, forcing Columbus to call a timeout. Columbus hit a couple more threes, but Holliday didn't back down and kept putting the ball in the rim for a 59-40 win.
