The Sealy Lady Tiger basketball squad finished last week with only one road contest instead of two after Boling canceled the Saturday tilt but last Friday’s trip to East Bernard ended with Sealy back in the win column by a 41-36 score to move to 4-4 overall on the season.

The Lady Tigers traveled to Cuero earlier this week for the final game before the holiday break that starts this Friday, although Sealy will play its final two non-district matchups during the school recess on Dec. 21 in Brazosport and on Dec. 29 in Schulenburg. Another game was scheduled for Dec. 28 in Hitchcock but that was canceled earlier this week according to head coach Anthony Branch.

Branch said last Friday’s win over East Bernard was a tale of two halves where the Lady Tigers came out hot in the first two quarters and held a 29-15 lead at halftime but cooled off in the last two quarters and although they were outscored 21-12, the visitors held on for the win.

“In the first half, I thought we played really well. I thought Evelyn (Harrington) was looking to bounce back from her game. She scored well against Gonzales but I think her assists and floor vision didn’t go as well as they can be but she did well tonight and it was amazing what she did and our players made their shots,” Branch said. “(I was) really pleased on the way Jasmyne (Joiner) rebounded tonight. She was phenomenal in the first half. She was jumping up and grabbing everything and it really limited East Bernard’s opportunity on the offensive boards where we were able to get up and down the floor and get some easy looks. Again, Brylie (Bond) had to guard their best player and I thought she did a good job and Megan (Schaaf), who has been playing the four, has to step up and play the three spots for us, and did well.”

The adjustment for Schaaf to move from power forward to small forward came after the starting small forward, senior Heaven Hernandez, suffered a concussion.

“For last three games, Heaven’s been pretty much our second-leading scorer,” Branch said. “Her and Brylie have been averaging at least 10 or 11 points the last three games so not having her really hurt us.”

Harrington was the lone Sealy scorer in double digits in the win over East Bernard with 16 points and Bond was next with five points. Five Lady Tigers all registered four points including Julia Jurecka, Avery Oliver, Eastlynn Cloud, Joiner and Schaaf. Harrington added eight rebounds, seven assists, three blocks and a steal, Joiner finished with 10 rebounds, Bond contributed two rebounds, two steals and an assist and Schaaf pulled down eight rebounds and recorded two assists, a steal and a block.

Oliver registered six rebounds, two blocks and two assists in addition to her four points and Cloud provided three rebounds, two blocks and a steal on top of her four points where Branch was able to utilize her in the guard rotation with confidence.

“Another player I thought did a lot of good things, she bounced back with probably her second-best game of the year as far as handling the ball and bringing it up and not trying to get out of our element, Eastlynn Cloud was very effective tonight,” Branch said. “I was very pleased, she had to play the backup point guard and I was able to get her some minutes and rotate her, Brylie and Evelyn quite a bit and I was able to keep them all fresh.”

Also contributing on the scorecard were Alexa Hernandez (2 points, 2 rebounds) and Ariel Gonzales (4 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block), the latter of whom was a recent callup from the junior varsity squad and will look to round out the roster ahead of Sealy’s district-opening game on Jan. 5.

“We’ve got four games coming up that are going to be a really good test to see where we’re at and we’ve got to figure out how to win those games. Like I told them, we expect to win; bottom line, we’ve got to win games and put ourselves in good positioning and get ready for district,” Branch said. “We’re capable of it. We’re very capable of it, it’s just a matter of going out there and doing it and we’ll see what can happen.”