LONGVIEW, Texas-Texas High begins its playoff season tonight against John Tyler.
The Lady Tigers (24-7) were the co-District 16-5A champions and earned the No. 1 seed by virtue of a coin flip. The Lady Lions placed fourth in 15-5A.
The teams clash in a 5A bi-district game at 6 p.m. today at Lobo Coliseum on the campus of Longview High School.
"We need to play defense well: we're going to full-court press and we need to make sure we're rotating correctly," Lady Tiger head coach Shonda Wilson said. "We need to rebound well, and we need to take advantage of transition baskets and convert. We have to limit our turnovers and shoot the ball well from the free throw line."
Eight seniors will be on the postseason roster for Texas High, which went 9-1 in league play, splitting with state-ranked Royse City. Four of those are starters.
Kiasyia Morrison will start at point guard for the Tigers, Mia Wilson and Antonia Porter are the other starting guards, Porter also helping at the post, Vicki Willis will be at the other post, and Kerrighan Dunn-the lone junior in the starting five-is another guard.
"We've got unselfish players, and that's a good thing," Coach Wilson said. "They step up and accept any role they need to that night to give us a chance to win and for the team. They don't care who scores: they just want to win."
The rest of the Tigers' playoff roster includes Nia Wilson, Sadeya Finley, Unique McBride, Amiya Rone, Ashanti Northcross, Ashlyn Stiger, Nazaya Williams, Maranda Miller and a couple of jayvee players pulled up to add depth to the postseason roster.
"We haven't seen a lot of film on John Tyler," Wilson said. "But I think we'll be ready to go; they know we have to go play our game, no matter who we're facing. They're the fourth-place team, but that doesn't matter because in the playoffs everybody wants to win and advance."
The winner advances to the area round later this week to face either Cleburne or Lancaster.
The game will be broadcast on KTXK 91.5 FM with pregame at 5:45 p.m.