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Post play, patience lead to Taylor win By Jerrad Lindenmuth BASTROP — The postseason chances of the Taylor Lady Ducks basketball team hinge on the play of their interior players. If the trio of Chasity Douglas, Kelsey Marek and Stephanie Zachary continue to play the way they did against the McAllen Lady Bulldogs, Taylor can go ahead and punch their ticket. The trio combined for 31 points and 33 rebounds, using their size and strength advantage to bully around McAllen in a 68-63 victory. The Lady Ducks finished with 47 total rebounds “We’re going to be bigger and stronger than most teams we play, we have to dominate inside,” Taylor coach Kisha Jones said. “That’s supposed to be our strength in district.” A quartet of Lady Ducks scored in double digits — Holly Frazier led the team with 19 points despite not scoring a single point in the first quarter. Marek recorded a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Douglas scored 14 points and pulled down seven rebounds and Shelby Johnson scored 10 points and recorded four assists and two rebounds. The Lady Ducks established their interior offense early, racing to an 11-3 lead. McAllen mixed up their defenses well, showing zone and man looks and occasionally pressing Taylor ballhandlers. “I don’t think either one of [their defenses] stood out to me,” Jones said. “They did a real good job on defense, but as long as we didn’t rush and showed patience, we were okay. When we rushed we turned the ball over.” Turnovers erased Taylor leads on several occasions against the Lady Bulldogs. The early 11-3 lead was wiped out in four minutes after five turnovers led to nine McAllen points. The Lady Ducks went back up by eight after Frazier scored her first points of the game on a 3-pointer with 7:20 left in the second quarter, but two minutes later it was 20-19. McAllen took their first lead of the game near the end of the first half 31-29. With 1:20 left in the half, a Marek layup tied the game, and another bucket from the senior post brought the lead back to Taylor. Frazier drained a 3-pointer from an assist by Johnson to increase the lead to five. A jumper with 10 seconds left made the score 36-33 at halftime. Coming out for the second half McAllen scored the first five points to take a two-point lead, but the next eight points would go to the Lady Ducks. A layup from Douglas tied the game 38-all. Douglas scored the next three points, followed by another 3-pointer from Frazier. Taylor would hold the lead the rest of the way, expanding it to as much as 10 midway through the fourth quarter. Jones was pleased that her team showed very little rust from the holiday vacation. “Coming off the break, you don’t know what you’ll get but we played well and we’re ready for district,” Jones said. “We had much better rebounding inside and we stayed within our offense.” In other Taylor hoops action, the boy’s team lost in overtime to Snook 66-62 in their first game in the Cameron Chamber Christmas Classic. Mark Jackson, who forced overtime with a fast break layup, led the Ducks with 27 points. Also scoring for Taylor was DeMarea Kerley with 13 points, Lorenzo Sanford with 10 and Shermane Caldwell, Wes Carter and Chris Martinez each with four points. The Ducks took on Marlin Monday evening to conclude pool play.
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