Two district champions went head-to-head Friday night in the area round of the playoffs for a spot in the regional quarterfinals next week.

District 18-5A champs Cinco Ranch (28-7) used their full team of shooters to defeat Nimitz (27-8) 50-42 at Cypress Ridge.

“I dare anybody to find as many shooters as we have,” Cinco Ranch coach Eric Bartlett said. “We had five shooters out there at one point.”

Cinco Ranch will face Bellaire at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Aldine Campbell Center. This will be a rematch of when Bellaire beat Cinco Ranch earlier this season.

Big three-point shots from Demi Clinch and Kelsey Clinch in the second quarter broke the 11-all tie and helped the Cougars finish the half with a 21-14 lead.

Nimitz came out of halftime with four points from Brittney Griner and Jessica Diamond.

D.Clinch sank another three-point basket mid-third to maintain a seven-point lead and ended the quarter with an additional three-point shot for an eight-point lead.

Cinco Ranch’s Briana Gilbreath dropped one in when K.Clinch passed it after getting a steal in the fourth. Shantel Nwanguma followed with two-points after getting a rebound and putting it in.

A senior post, Nwanguma played her first minutes in three games tonight for a total of 10 points.

“I’m really proud of Shantel Nwanguma,” Bartlett said. “She really hurt her knee and has been rehabbing really hard. We put her out there and she played with a lot of heart.”

The whole Cougar team played with a lot of heart. With a 41-29 lead, Nimitz showed signs of coming back and possibly taking the game from Cinco Ranch, who held the lead the entire game.

Nimitz went on an eight-point run with Chrishauna Parker leading it. Then with two-minutes left, Nimitz took two shots and missed both for a would be total of five points. Cinco Ranch’s Gilbreath was fouled and hit both free points. Griner and Ashley Howard got a basket a piece to end Nimitz’ scoring.

And now it's on to Bellaire, which beat the Cougars by 40 points in November.

“We’ve played them before,” Bartlett said. “We played them at Christmas time and last year and the year before, so these kids know each other. We just got ready to play our playoff game and we played them well."

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