After its district schedule included Bellaire, Madison and Westside and its non-league schedule featured the likes of 4A power Dickinson, the Lamar girls basketball team entered the postseason unfazed if not steeled.

The Redskins attributed much of the poise they showed early and late in Monday night’s 54-52 bi-district upset of 19-5A champion Eisenhower to the previous 32 games, but cautioned they’re hardly finished.

“We had to keep doing what we do best – slow the game, keep the tempo in our favor and we came together and we won,” said Lamar’s Krystal Motley, the game-high scorer with 24 points at Delmar Fieldhouse. “Bellaire, Westside and Madison helped us to find out what we’ve been doing wrong and use it to improve.”

The Redskins’ smothering defense set the pace in the first half, but perhaps the most impressive facet of the win was that after it scored four points in the third quarter, Lamar recaptured its poise and acted as if Eisenhower’s 21-6 run to start the second half never happened.

The Eagles were limited to two field goals in the final 2:26 and mustered only three shots total.

“It’s the best defense we’ve played all year,” Redskins coach Barbara Meadough said. “We played as a team and never gave up. They wanted to win and they did. We want back to what we did. We had to; we knew they were going to make a run.”

Stephanie Smith added 11 points and Alycea Price 10 for Lamar, which advances to play Cypress Falls or Elsik later this week at a site and time to be determined.

Eisenhower, which battled tooth-and-nail with Nimitz for the 19-5A crown and was undefeated in district until Nimitz defeated them two weeks ago, finished 27-8.

Lamar used a 10-0 run late in the second quarter to open a 32-23 halftime lead, but Eisenhower responded by holding Lamar to two field goals in the first 9 minutes, 26 seconds of the second half. The Eagles took their first lead since the first quarter with 7:06 left when Porshay Stevens’ steal and layup made it 38-36.

Eisenhower’s lead peaked at 44-38 with 5:33 left on Angelica Markray’s back-to-back steals for baskets. But an Alex Heaggs 3-pointer tied it at 44 moments later, and Smith and Motley’s back-to-back scores made it 48-46.

Clarissa Moore scored 15 points and Markray added 11 for Eisenhower.

“I could see them getting upset a little bit but they didn’t lose their heads,” Meadough said. “In our (non-district) games, we’ve played a lot better than we did in the district. Those games were tough on us. We ran into some very good times. We’re glad we played those games. They got us ready for this.”

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