The Pantherettes(38-0) are set to face Spring Dekaney(37-1) in the 6A State Final tonight at 8:30 p.m. After crushing the Cibolo Steele Lady Knights 81-41 behind the play of McDonald’s All-American Center Ciera Johnson who had a career high 32 points and 11 rebounds in this victory, the team looks to take this momentum into tonight’s game. Johnson took advantage of her size and length and took out the Lady Knights star forward Alexes Bryant who only scored 6 points on the night.

“She really wanted to take her out of the game,” head Coach Cathy Self-Morgan said. “Ciera really battled Bryant on the boards and worked her into foul trouble.”

The Pantherettes spread the ball out around the team in the win taking a big 36-19 second period lead. Senior forward Madison Townley had 10 rebound to give Duncanville a huge advantage on the boards. Pantherette sophomore guard Zarielle Green had 16 points and five rebounds. Duncanville’s brutal defense controlled the game and forced the Lady Knights to 25% from the field. Despite the game’s high-paced tempo, the Pantherettes had only 11 turnovers along with 10 steals.

“Getting stops on defense were huge,” Self-Morgan said. “We really controlled the paint and allowed #23(Charisma Shepard) to score more than what we should have.”

The Pantherettes head into tonight’s game holding the record in the UIL state tournament with 24 State Final Appearances and the most state championships with seven titles. Under the leadership of Coach Self-Morgan the Pantherettes have three state titles and are showing strong plans of making it four after tonight. If the Pantherettes can defeat Spring Dekaney, it will be their third title in the last five years. The Pantherettes lost their last state title appearance in an disappointing loss to Manvel with four starting players fouling out that game with both Townley and Johnson remaining on the floor for that loss.

“Their tired of me reminding them off what happened two years ago,” Self-Morgan said. “The girls are ready to finish it out and get it out of their system.”

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