ABILENE — Kamryn Ledbetter remembers what it was like watching the Shallowater girls basketball team win a state championship two years ago.
An eighth-grader, Ledbetter marveled from the stands at the Alamodome as the Fillies rode heart and hustle to the mountaintop of Class 3A. She couldn’t wait until it was her turn to don a black and red jersey and do her part to continue Shallowater’s proud tradition.
Ledbetter had her chance in the state semifinals Tuesday, and she more than lived up to the standard.
The sophomore grinded her way to 10 points in a pivotal third quarter that turned the tide in the Fillies’ 56-52 victory over Emory Rains. The result booked a return trip to San Antonio for Shallowater, which will face Hitchcock for the 3A Division I crown Friday.
“She’s done a great job jumping right in with these guys,” Fillies coach Kurt Richardson said, “starting last year and then continuing on this year. Again, it’s just hustle plays. She knows that’s the standard. She made a big impact during that third quarter.”
Shallowater (29-7) trailed by five at halftime and nine early in the third quarter. Down seven, Ledbetter’s 3-pointer kicked off a 14-4 run that gave the Fillies a lead they never surrendered. The rest of her points in the frame came off offensive rebounds and free throws after willing her way to the rim.
How did Ledbetter describe it?
“Just keep hustling,” Ledbetter said, “having good effort, rebounds. Just everything like that. Just knowing somebody has to run up and down the court and get those little misses and put them back.”
That was the formula that earned an undersized Shallowater team the program’s third title in 2024. That group, too, beat Rains in the semifinals. Tuesday’s matchup had holdovers on both sides, but Richardson said the Wildcats were so different under first-year coach Colton Smith — a Rains assistant in the last meeting — that he didn’t even watch the 2024 film.
This Fillies team is different as well, but the veterans that remained left their mark again.
Carli Buckley, Keelie Williams and Linley Wright made the all-state tournament team as sophomores, and their impact was felt this time around, too. Wright scored a game-high 15 points, Buckley added 14 and Williams seven.
Perhaps none were bigger than Buckley’s free throw to put Shallowater up two possessions with 10 seconds remaining. That came following a timeout after she missed the first attempt.
“Surprisingly, I wasn’t (nervous),” Buckley said. “I just have so much confidence in this team that I knew, even if I missed it, we were going to work hard, like it wasn’t going to be the end of the world. I just had to have peace and trust in my training.”
Buckley said the team’s chemistry is what pushes it over the edge.
“We’ve been playing since second grade, and we just know each other,” Buckley said. “I don’t know how to explain it. That’s the only reason we win games. Our offense isn’t great. We’re not the most skilled at things. We’re not the most routine. Our defense is all we’ve got, so we just have to go every game just thinking, ‘I want that ball.'”
It’s a contagious message, to be sure. Ledbetter entered high school and took off with it.
“That always makes it fun with how hard she’s working,” Buckley said. “She just came in, and she was just fighting and battling, and we’re like, ‘OK, we like this girl.’ So, it was super easy to just allow her into our group and just accept her and let her play the way she does.”
Ledbetter said she’s grateful the upperclassmen to whom she’s looked up have taken her “under their wing.” She’d love nothing more than to send them off with a second state championship in three years.
However Friday’s final shakes out, Buckley knows the team has done everything in its power to get ready. The rest is the fun part.
“Our training has been super serious, so by the time it gets to this point, it’s like just the funnest trip ever,” Buckley said. “Obviously, we work hard in our hour practices, but the rest of the day is just like a team party. It’s just so fun. By the time it gets to the state championship game, we’ve already practiced as hard as we could’ve, so there’s nothing we can really do in the next few days. So, it’s mostly just a party with our team.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Ledbetter continues hardnosed Shallowater tradition in semifinal win
Reporting by Stephen Garcia, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
