Last Friday’s TAPPS 4A state championship girls basketball game between Geneva School of Boerne and Lubbock Christian School was anybody’s for the taking and came down to the very end.
Both squads held second-half leads and there really wasn’t much difference between the last two girls teams standing in TAPPS 4A.
A late push by Lubbock Christian proved to be the difference in the game between the evenly-matched squads.
Lubbock Christian closed out the fourth quarter with a 6-3 run and that spurt was enough to carry them over the finish line against Geneva in Waco, 43-39.
It’s the Lubbock Christian Eagles fifth state championship in a row, while the Eagles of Geneva finish second in the state and return home with silver medals.
Friday’s contest was marked by big momentum swings from both teams.
With Geneva up 5-2 early in the game, Maegan Riebel got on a roll and scored the next 12 points as part of a 12-8 run to help Geneva open up its largest lead of the game at 17-10 with 5:30 left until halftime.
After a timeout, Lubbock Christian answered with a 10-0 spurt over the next four minutes to take a 20-17 edge late in the second period.
However, Madeline Egbert and Mogan Howard both nailed 3-pointers in the final 85 seconds of the half to help Geneva close it out on a 6-0 run for the 23-20 lead at the break.
Lubbock Christian came out in the second half and used a 9-2 spurt to shift the momentum back to their side for the 29-25 advantage.
Geneva’s only points in the first five minutes of the third came from Sopris Oglesby, but Riebel and Kyra Petty scored 4 straight and it was tied again at 29-29.
However, Lubbock Christian broke the tie and tallied the last 9 points of the third and bumped its lead to 37-29 by the time the final stanza started.
Lubbock Christian went cold early in the fourth quarter and Geneva took advantage by scoring 7 straight, 5 from Petty and 2 from Riebel and it was a onepoint game at 37-36 with 3:37 remaining.
Lubbock Christian didn’t score its first points of the fourth quarter until 6:30 had elapsed but they never lost the lead after Geneva had a few turnovers after pulling within a point.
A 2-pointer by Lubbock Christian, followed by another bucket bumped the lead to 41-36 with under a minute but Geneva wasn’t going down without a fight.
Petty nailed a 3-pointer with 43 seconds left and the Lubbock Christian lead was down to 2 points at 41-39.
Geneva was trying stealing the ball but couldn’t and after Lubbock Christian ran some time off, Geneva was forced to foul to stop the clock.
With 13 ticks on the clock, Tobie Mcgehee nailed both her free throws and pushed the Lubbock Christian lead to four points at 43-39.
Geneva set up one final shot but the 3-pointer missed and the Eagles from Lubbock Christian ran out the clock to secure the victory.
Geneva ends its season at 30-5 and was led in scoring by Riebel who finished with 16 points. Petty scored 11, with 8 coming in the fourth quarter, Morgan Howard had 5, Madeline Egbert netted 3, while Grace Detterick and Oglesby both chipped in with 2 points.
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