By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
MANSFIELD — Brownsville First Baptist’s magical season came to an end.
The Crusaders fell behind during the first quarter and made several runs to try and close the gap during the course of the final three quarters. Unfortunately for them, those attempts didn’t come to fruition and First Baptist lost to Granbury North Central Texas Academy 57-34 in the TAPPS Class 1A state championship at Timberview High School.
With the win, the Lady Pioneers claimed their fifth straight state championship.
Granbury took advantage of its height and athletic prowess to prevent repeated attempts by the Crusaders to rally.
“We were down by six points early, and we finished the first quarter down by nine,” First Baptist coach Terry Roberts said. “I felt like if we could have closed the quarter out and kept it close it could have been a different game, but we couldn’t.
“I was proud of my girls. We kept making runs, but they had answers for everything.”
The Crusaders came back during the third quarter and outscored the Lady Pioneers, leading to several timeouts called by Granbury to adjust. But First Baptist was too far behind to cut into the deficit enough.
“Our girls played hard the whole game, I was proud of them,” Roberts said. “They gave it their all, and you can’t ask anything other than that.”
Sandy Masso had a team-high 15 points and Andrea Barrios had 13 points to lead First Baptist. Haley Boone scored two points and seniors Ana Balcazar and Elisabeth Roberts scored two points apiece during the final game of their high school careers.
Despite the loss, the Crusaders can be proud of what they accomplished this season and look forward to the return of several players on next year’s squad.
“It’s disappointing when you lose, but if we reflect back, we had a great season,” Roberts said. “Both (Masso and Barrios) are underclassmen, so this team has a lot going for it next year.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.