Last year, Cy-Fair’s girls basketball team was in this position.

Now the Bobcats find themselves as the 5A state tournament’s proverbial greybeards.

Cy-Fair, whose only loss of 2006-07 was in overtime in the state championship game, is the only participant in this weekend’s state tournament in Austin that has been there before.

The two Dallas-area semifinalists, DeSoto and Garland Naaman Forest, are newcomers if not surprising qualifiers.

But the fastest road to state comes from Converse, a San Antonio suburb that produced the Wagner Thunderbirds (36-1), Cy-Fair’s opponent in Friday’s 3:30 p.m. semifinal.

DeSoto (38-1) and Naaman Forest (30-6) play in the other semifinal at 8:30 p.m. The winners meet in the championship at 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

Wagner, which went 16-0 in District 26-5A and has won 32 straight games, returned the core of its 2006-07 team that was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs. Most of those girls went 30-1 in 2005-06, when Wagner played a junior-varsity schedule but won two varsity tournaments and finished second in another.

The turning point for this team may have come last year, when despite being upended in the postseason it upset powerful San Antonio Churchill, a district rival.

“The Churchill win, that was a turning point for the team,” coach Christina Camacho told the San Antonio Express-News. “People probably didn't think we were going to be that successful. But I did.”

Six-foot-3 Amber Roberson and 6-2 BreAnna Brock, a Missouri commitment who transferred in from rival Converse Judson two years ago, guard the inside. The Thunderbirds’ up-tempo game is keyed by guards LenNique Brown, Sajoyia Griffin and Jessica Sommers.

Brown scored 14 of her game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter in Wagner’s 65-43 rout of McAllen in a regional semifinal. The Thunderbirds beat San Antonio Madison 66-57 in the regional final; it was Wagner’s fourth win against their district rivals this year.

“Going to state was always in the back of my mind. I knew they could do it,” Camacho said. “This is a special group.”

Apparently, the other two semifinalists have created charmed lives for themselves, too.

DeSoto got over the regional hump after falling short three straight years. The Eagles avenged their only loss of the season Saturday by defeating Duncanville, 43-40, in the regional final.

Their quality wins include four in Houston at the Pasadena Invitational in November, most notably a 60-49 win against 4A state semifinalist Dickinson. They also defeated Pflugerville in that tournament, the team Naaman Forest got by to reach state.

The young Rangers, who have just one senior, trailed 48-47 after the third quarter but blitzed the Panthers with a 24-2 fourth-quarter advantage and won 71-50. They were the first Garland ISD school to reach the regional tournament in 30 years and the first to get to state.

Man-to-man defense has paced Naaman Forest, which scores about 60 points a game and allows about 45. Six-foot junior post Jasmine Godbolt averages 11 points and nine rebounds, guard Krystal Johnson averages five assists and is one of several potent long-range shooters, and the inside is guarded by 6-1 Neka Enemkpali and 6-0 Amina Sawyer.

Naaman Forest’s only senior is 5-9 post Brittani Wilkins.

“Our strength is the fact we have five players who can play,” first-year coach Derik Short told reporters after the regional final. “You can’t key on one player. …

“These kids just find a way to win. When it’s been on the line, these kids have really stepped up.”

State tournament schedule
at Frank Erwin Center, Austin
Friday’s semifinals
Cy-Fair (37-2) vs. Converse Wagner (36-1), 3:30 p.m.
DeSoto (38-1) vs. Garland Naaman Forest (30-6), 8:30 p.m.
Saturday
Championship, 8:30 p.m. The game will be shown live on FSN Southwest.

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