SAN ANTONIO — You can’t spell Wall without D.
The Wall girls basketball team used its hallmark suffocating defense to overwhelm Nacogdoches Central Heights, 49-34, in the Class 3A Division II state championship game Friday, March 6 at the Alamodome, capturing the program’s third state title and first since 2016.
The Hawks harangued the Blue Devils into misfiring on their first 11 field goal attempts in both the first and second halves, giving Wall the opportunity to quickly build a double-digit advantage early and add to their lead after half.
Central Heights went a combined 2 of 26 from the floor in those two quarters and never seriously charged at the favored Hawks, even when the Blue Devils picked it up on defense themselves.
Second-year Wall head coach Silas Crisler joked he wasn’t much of a defender in college, but he has underscored its importance as a coach.
“We preach it because they know offense does not always travel,” Crisler said. “We want to be the toughest team in the state of Texas and we proved that today. Practice, sometimes they hate it, but they are all the things that are going to help us compete and win basketball games.
“Defense is something that as a player, I was not really good at, but as a coach it is something I preach because I want to make sure we are ready for March.”
In three state championship game wins, the Hawks have limited opponents to 44, 21 and now 34 points, as this year’s run capped a postseason that saw them upend the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 6-ranked teams in succession to even reach the Alamodome.
Senior Emery Harper credited another rugged pre-district slate, including heavyweights Canyon, Brock and Decatur in helping prepare the team.
“I think coach Crisler did a good job of putting us in those situations early on against Brock, where the score was fluctuating and the lead was changing a lot, which helped us with the big games like Idalou and Coahoma,” Harper said. “It was good to be put in those situations before the time mattered.”
Kennedi Graves said the challenging schedule benefitted along with the tight-knit nature of the team which allows you to trust your teammate is going to back you up on defense.
Wall’s defensive blitz early challenged Central Heights into committing 12 first-half turnovers which helped Wall lead 23-13 at the break.
Even when the Blue Devils were challenging Wall inside and in transition, producing four blocks and several deflections, the defensive never let up allowing the Hawks to pull away on the same day that the 2016 Wall state championship team was honored at the Alamodome.
Crisler said some of this year’s run was rooted in last year’s area round loss to Tolar.
“The next Monday our players that didn’t have spring sports to go to were in the gym shooting and talking about how this is never going to happen again,” Crisler said. “That is something you can’t give kids. You have to have that in you as a player. They just bought in. They don’t care what it took to get a win, whether it was 35-25, they didn’t care.”
Wall sophomore guard Jewels Johnson was voted MVP of the game after having nine points, 10 rebounds, three steals and three assists.
The Hawks were led by McKenzie Lopez’s 11 points while Harper and Kenzzie Covert, who hit multiple momentum grabbing 3-pointers in the third quarter, had eight points.
“When they said that wasn’t going to happen again after the Tolar loss, they proved it tonight and they proved it every day,” Crisler said. “There was a resiliency and ability to put their nose down and get to work. That has been seen every day in practice and in the games, whether we were prepping for a team we thought we were going to beat by 50 or prepping for Decatur, it didn’t matter.”
This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: Hallmark defense leads the way as Wall girls capture third state title
Reporting by Quinton Martinez, San Angelo Standard-Times / San Angelo Standard-Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
