It was a tough way to start District 13-6A Tuesday night on the road for Conroe.
But despite their struggles, the Tigers still had a shot late to pull off a stunner at College Park.
Conroe was down a point in the waning moments, stole inbounds pass off a three-point play, but couldn’t finish at the hoop after a timeout. College Park iced the game from there for a 37-34 victory.
The Tigers (5-4, 0-1) have dropped two of three since the beginning of last week while College Park (5-4, 1-0) snapped a two-game losing streak and overcame a 30-point loss to Humble last Friday.
The Conroe bench provided 13 of the 34 points, including some massive shots made down the stretch. With about four minutes left, Conroe trailed by eight points before starting guard Damiri Anderson sparked the Tigers with a 3-pointer. Reserve Maliyah Harrison made a corner shot with 2:54 to play and then squared up and drained another shot just inside the 3-point line at the 1:56 mark to make it a 33-31 deficit.
Katie Westwood put College Park up 35-31 with 1:35 left on a layup down the other end.
With 17 seconds to go, Conroe’s Ahmaj Brundidge made her only shot of the game off the bench on a baseline drive and then made her free throw to trail 35-34.
“It’s always good when your bench can come in and give you a spark,” Conroe coach Tamisha Houston said. “It kind of leads you to believe that they shouldn’t be coming off the bench if they are going to take opportunities, step up and make those shots.”
Harrison led Conroe with seven points on the night.
College Park’s Brooke Smith iced the game with two free throws made as she was fouled on the inbounds with 1.7 seconds left.
Overall, it was a discouraging night as Houston felt her team lacked in the toughness department.
Conroe and College Park split last year’s meetings with the Cavaliers winning the first meeting then as well. The next meeting in January could weigh large on the playoff hunt as Conroe finished third place last year and the Cavaliers missed the postseason with a fifth place finish.
“I told them coming in here from the tip, you have to play like you’re 10 points down,” Houston said. “And I don’t know that we did that. We waited until we were almost 10 points down to actually play like you were 10 points down.”
Conroe got a little bit of offense going in the first quarter for a 9-6 lead after eight minutes.
Everything stalled out against an aggressive zone defense presented by College Park over the next eight minutes.
Conroe shot 0-for-9 from the floor in the second quarter and only had free throws made by Anderson and a pair from junior Riley Gross, who totaled all six of her points in the first half.
“I told them that (College Park) was going to zone us and I told my bigs that they had to finish,” Houston said. “I told my guards that they had to be ready to knock down shots and penetrate. It’s always hard to play over here. But when you allow a zone to keep you outside the 3-point line, it’s gonna be a long night.”
College Park took the lead in the second quarter on a 3-pointer by Katie Westwood, the Cavaliers’ leading scorer at over 9 points per game coming into the contest.
Conroe briefly held the lead at 12-11 at the 1:24 mark on Anderson’s split at the line before College Park’s Brooke Smith successfully drove to the hoop on the next possession for what ended up being a 13-12 halftime lead.
Led by a pair of buckets by senior Alisa Sneed, Conroe barely outscored College Park 9-8 in the third quarter to make it 21-all going to the fourth.
Gross, who had 11 in the second College Park meeting last year — a win – totaled six points. Sneed also had six points, while Taylor Smith had five and Anderson finished with four.
For College Park, Brooke Smith had 11 points and Valentia Campos scored eight of her 10 in the second half.
Conroe was well short of its 48.8 points per game average coming in. College Park’s 37 points was just over Conroe’s 36.5 average.
The Tigers return home Friday where they are 4-2 on the season to play The Woodlands in the second 13-6A game of the week.
“I hope they can learn from this,” Houston said. “If they don’t, it’s going to be a long season.”
Conroe freshman Kayleigh Phillips (21) dribbles the ball in a game against Liberty on Nov. 15, 2024 (Chris Zorzi/SportCast Media)
