Wolves Hold Off Marlins
I wrote about the rivalry between Bellaire and Westside over the past five years and explained before that, Madison ruled in HISD. Out of the three, they are the only one that actually “got of here” or made it to Austin, they actually have gone twice. Another record they have that probably won’t be broken, at least in my lifetime, is they did not lose a district game for over 10 years. They have had several talented players, however one class stands out and that’s the one from 2004. Coach Anthony Fields sort of opened the door for freshmen playing on varsity, none of this waiting your turn stuff. Coach Fields and assistant coach Trent Strozere’s philosophy was always this, if you were the better player, you played on varsity and in an unprecedented move, they put four freshmen on the team at the same time, they were dubbed the “Fab Four”. That was a special group pf players and all made it to the next level, Tiffany Bogany-Alabama State, Alicia Mc Daniel- Louisiana Lafayette, Alaina Lee-Murray State and Patrice Reado-Texas A&M.
Bogany was the post that was unstoppable under the basket, Mc Daniel was a do it all combo guard, Lee is one of the best points that came through Houston and Reado was one of the most gifted athletes to ever play in the city. One play that is forever etched in my mind happened against Bellaire where Reado was under her own basket, out ran a Bellaire player that was 30 feet ahead of her going for a lay-up. Reado caught her and blocked the shot toward mid-court, beat everyone down court for the ball, made a lay-up and slapped the square; hey I can’t make this stuff up.
On Saturday, Madison took Westside to the wire, losing 50-49 in a game that went back and forth. Madison had a chance to win it at the buzzer, but it wasn’t meant to be. The game was close all the way, Sade Adedapo (16) and Bria Lakes (14) kept Madison in the game, Sade in fact beat Westside almost a year ago with a last second three pointer, check the video. Two things to remember, I know a whole lot and I forget very little. Tiffany “TD” Davis led all scorers with 21 for Westside and probably had close to 10 steals.
Speaking of scoring, I also had a chance to watch Jenzel Nash from Worthing. Nash has been putting up numbers since her freshman season and might be close to the record. Last week she scored 64 and 48 but on Saturday, they put the clamps on her and held her to 45. Nash is a very fast and athletic player from the Class of 2011 who surprisingly hasn’t signed, however she will have no problem landing with someone.