The Conroe Tigers haven’t been in action since Nov. 26 – two Tuesdays ago – when it beat New Caney by 42 points for the first District 13-6A win of the season.
For all their effort the first month of the season and with Thanksgiving on the calendar, the Tigers didn’t have any official team activities the rest of the week, after defeating the Eagles, so the coaches and players could enjoy time with family during the holiday.
This past Tuesday came and the Tigers were on the sidelines with a bye while the rest of 13-6A competed right out of the break.
With tournaments and other non-district games taking place tonight with 13-6A, Conroe didn’t want to be idle for two whole weeks with the next district game – a big one this Tuesday at Oak Ridge – coming up.
The solution?
Saturday will be an action-packed day of non-district games which is being dubbed ‘Lady Tigers Booster Hoops’ at The Pit.
Conroe, Cypress Ranch, Cy-Fair and Brazosport will play a round robin of games all day.
“We’re just getting some games in,” Conroe head coach Tamisha Houston said last week. “If we didn’t do that, we’d be sitting here without a game until December 10th.”
The Tigers practiced this week, but it’ll be 11 days since the last game when they tip-off Saturday morning.
“It will be a good way for us to work the kinks out,” Houston said. “Get up and down the floor and keep our conditioning with the games not weighing so heavy on us.”
Here’s a look at Conroe’s slate as the Tigers enter 6-5 and averaging 47.2 points per game while allowing 35.6.
Junior Riley Gross is the leading scorer (8.8 points per game and second in rebounds at 5.2) and blocker at 1.1 per game. Junior teammate Taylor Smith is the leading rebounder at 7.2 per game.
Senior guard Alisa Sneed is second scoring (7.8 per game), first in assists (3.1) and steals (4.7).
In nine games played, sophomore Lisa Jacques leads in shooting percentage at 55% while fellow sophomore Maliyah Harrison is the top 3-pointer shooter at 29% as is Gross.
Here’s a rundown of Conroe’s games:
Cypress Ranch, 9 a.m.
The Tigers and Mustangs clash to begin the day.
Cy Ranch (7-5) started District 16-6A play earlier this week with a 45-35 loss to Cypress Springs. The Mustangs have dropped two straight games with their most recent win coming Nov. 19 against Fort Bend Willowridge.
Mustangs senior Aniayah White, a recent Mercer University signee, is averaging 9.5 points, 3.1 assists and 3 steals per game.
The Mustangs went 19-16 last year and missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker loss to Cypress Falls.
Cy Ranch, which opened in 2008, has never played Conroe.
Cy-Fair, 1:30 p.m.
Cy-Fair hasn’t started District 17-6A yet as the Bobcats will use this day to tune-up for the opener on Tuesday against Cypress Ridge.
The Bobcats are 3-8 on the season with a three-game losing streak in tow.
Cy-Fair suffered losses to Alief Hastings, Bridgeland and Alief Elsik prior to Thanksgiving break. Like Conroe, the Bobcats haven’t played this week leading up.
The Bobcats have struggled on the offensive end of the floor, averaging just 34.6 points per game. Their average margin of defeat is 23.6 points per game.
Conroe is 0-3 against Cy-Fair, but the teams haven’t met since before most of the players were born. The last meeting between the two was Dec. 11, 2007 and the teams also met earlier that year in January and prior to that, Dec. 2006.
Cy-Fair’s legendary coach Ann Roubique retired after last season after 34 years and over 700 wins. The Bobcats are now led by Ashlaa Zuniga.
Conroe vs. Brazosport, 4:30 p.m.
Brazosport will have a challenging 24 hours as it also plays tonight.
The Exporters, 4-3 entering Friday, travel to Fort Bend Willowridge at 6:30 p.m. before getting up early Saturday to make the trip to Conroe.
The Exporters compete in Class 4A and continue to tune up for District 26, which starts next Friday against Bay City.
Entering its game with Willowridge, Brazosport is on a three-game winning streak. The Exporters knocked off rival Brazoswood, which competes in 6A, 69-48 this past Tuesday night. Prior to Thanksgiving, the Exporters defeated Fort Bend Elkins and Channelview by a total of 44 points. They started the year 1-3 with a win over Houston Yates.
Senior DeJa El-Amin will be one to stop as she averages a double-double per game of 20.1 points and 10.3 rebounds.
Brazosport went 26-7 last year and reached the area round.
The most recent meeting between Conroe and Brazosport came back in 2012 when the Tigers won by 31 points.
SCHEDULE
Conroe vs. Cypress Ranch, 9 a.m.
Brazosport vs. Cy-Fair, 10:30 a.m.
Cypress Ranch vs. Brazosport, noon
Conroe vs. Cy-Fair, 1:30 p.m.
Cypress Ranch vs. Cy-Fair, 3 p.m.
Conroe vs. Brazosport, 4:30 p.m.
Conroe head coach Tamisha Houston speaks to the team during a timeout against New Caney back on Nov. 26. (Chris Zorzi/SportCast Media)
