Lady Oilers win the battle for seeding
February 16, 2015
PEARLAND — The Pearland Lady Oilers and the Dawson Lady Eagles played each other twice in district play. Pearland won the first encounter 40-23 and Dawson won the second confrontation 55-44 leaving both teams tied for second place behind defending state champion Manvel who won the 22-6A crown.
The decision was made for Pearland and Dawson to play one more time to see which team would get the No. 2 and the No. 3 seed heading into the post-season.
Both teams had improved drastically since their previous meeting and both knew that they wanted to get the best position they could entering the playoffs.
Pearland came out hot in the opening quarter to grab a quick 20-8 lead which proved to be an advantage that the Lady Eagles could never trim the Lady O's lead closer than seven points the rest of the way.
Dawson continued to hustle and made up some ground by outscoring the Lady Oilers 11-6 leaving Pearland clinging to a 26-19 lead at intermission.
Pearland senior Jasmine Butler and sophomore Emer Nichols were almost unstoppable in the first half scoring the Lady Oilers first 16 points.
"Our objective was to hold both players down, and we didn't," Dawson head coach Isabel Gomez said.
Both teams continued to battle on an even basis as each score nine points in the third quarter leaving Pearland with a 35-27 lead entering the final frame.
The Lady Oilers built a 33-19 lead in the third, but Dawson wasn't going away as they outscored Pearland 8-2 to stay in the game thanks to Kasi Matthews, Katherine Darden, and Maddie Powers.
It was important for Dawson to get a good start in the fourth quarter, but Pearland took command scoring the first five points for a 40-28 thanks to a short jumper by Nikki Valencia and a 3-pointer by Nichols.
The closest that Dawson was able to get down the stretch was 10 points before Pearland posted the 52-37 final score to grab the No. 2 seed.
Katherine Darden led Dawson with 10 points.
Emer Nichols had a game-high 19 points for the Lady O's with Butler tossing in 14 and Cierra Lane adding 12.
Pearland faced Deer Park on Tuesday (late) while Dawson faced Port Arthur Memorial on Tuesday (late).
