Friday, Nov. 28, 2008

Lady Mustangs Shine at Northwest Tourney

GHS Girls Basketball

By John English

Contributing Writer

The Grapevine girls basketball team had a strong showing at last weekend’s Northwest tournament, and coach Steve Ganninger said he believes his team is really starting to come together.

Grapevine lost to Flower Mound 55-46 on Monday night and will next play Mesquite at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Grapevine High School.

"I’m never satisfied, and this group of girls seems to be the same way," Ganninger said. "They are always looking to get better. I think defensively, there are things we can get better on. Offensively, we still have a few things we can work on, but we have played well so far."

Grapevine finished 3-1 at the Northwest tournament and Ganninger said he thought the competition was great for his team’s growth.

"I was very pleased with how we played," Ganninger said. "We played some tough teams and got to see a lot of different styles. We saw some teams that had really talented players. We played against some Division I players, and I thought it was very good for us."

"I’m very pleased with the outcome. Our girls obviously wanted to win the tournament, but we lost by one point to Aledo, and then we came back and won two games after that."

Ganninger said his team did a good job defensively of rebounding and blocking out and said that all around, Grapevine is looking pretty solid.

"Considering all of the different styles of teams we played, I thought they did a great job of adjusting," Ganninger said. "I think we’re going to be a pretty versatile team, and I think that kind of came through in the tournament. There were times that we were kind of down, but they always fought back.

"The three games we won, we pretty much put the games out of reach in the second half, and I think that is due to our depth and our versatility."

Ganninger said he had a couple of standout performances in the tournament as well, but added that it truly was a team effort.

"Erica Paskell was named to the all-tournament team," Ganninger said. "She did really well, but I had five or six girls play huge rolls. I had multiple girls step up and play great defensive games.

"Taylor Haynes is one that had a great defensive game. Kayle Lowry is one of my junior posts, and she had a double-double in our first game, and had 17 rebounds. There were so many kids that, at one point or another, made key plays that helped us out."