Lady Rattlers exit early
Examiner photo by Matthew Ybarra Kel’Neisha Moore was cleared to play hours before the Lady Rattlers matchup with Fulshear after being sidelined all season with a knee injury. Moore finished with 1 point in the loss.
KATY- The Navasota Lady Rattlers have struggled to score all season and in the 4A Bi-District round of the playoffs, the struggle continued as Navasota failed to advance with a 48-31 loss to the Fulshear Lady Chargers.
Freshman Dai’Janaiya Richardson had a strong opening period for the Lady Rattlers scoring the first basket of the game and reeling off six points in the period, but Fulshear’s Kylie Ashman scored eight points to give the Lady Chargers an 11-8 opening quarter lead.
The Lady Rattlers remained within striking distance over the next two periods trailing 19-15 at halftime and 31-23 at the end of the third when Fulshear began to pull away.
Fulshear scored the first basket in the fourth period but Jakayla Jones answered with a basket of her own. The Lady Chargers then grabbed a big offensive rebound and put it back up for two to make the lead 38-25.
On the ensuing possession Fulshear nailed a three-pointer to extend the lead 38-25. Navasota senior Sha’Diamon King battled for the Lady Rattlers scoring most of her team-leading 10-points in the final period.
Navasota Head Coach Tommy Gates said he doesn’t want this loss to define the season is what he told his team. “They did all the hard stuff playing defense and rebounding,” said Gates. Gates said they had some good looks but just couldn’t put the ball in the basket.
Gates returns a young team next season. “If we don’t want our season to finish like this next year, then those returners are going to have to get in the gym during the offseason and get a whole lot better on the offensive side of the ball,” explained Gates.
Gates said it’s always an emotional time when the season ends, and your senior players know they suited up for the final time, but he is proud of his players efforts.
“If you would have said that we would have been the No. 1 seed five weeks ago not many people would have believed you, but our girls believed in themselves and I’m proud of them,” said Gates.
Jakayla Jones finished the game with 9 points followed by Richardson with 6, Tanaiya Warren 5 and Kel’neisha Moore 1.