Mineral Wells Area News

By DAVID MAY

Special to Mineral Wells Area News

A loss is always a loss. But even in defeat Friday, the Mineral Wells Lady Rams served notice they are a team to be reckoned with in District 6-4A.

In the district opener for both teams, the Lady Rams played a strong first half against top 25-ranked Stephenville, leading the Honey Bees 20-14 at the break. Mineral Wells was unable to match that success in the second half, as Stephenville escaped Rams Gym with a nail-biting 30-28 win.

The loss snapped a five-game Lady Rams win streak, who are now 15-10 on the season and 0-1 in district. In the other district opener Friday, No. 1-ranked Glen Rose (22-3, 1-0) throttled Brownwood, 70-19. Graham was idle.

Mineral Wells travels to Brownwood (16-9, 0-1) on Tuesday before hosting the top-ranked Lady Tigers on Friday.

Against Stephenville, Mineral Wells was led in scoring by Cadence Colwell who dropped in 10 points, including two three-pointers. Aniya Richardson provided nine points. Caitlyn Colwell added five, with Kahlea Samples chipping in three and Rindy Carter scoring two.

Hurting the Lady Rams were 14 turnovers. Mineral Wells grabbed 16 defensive boards, but recorded just one offensive board. Those two stats hurt the Lady Rams’ scoring opportunities, especially in a second half in which they scored just five points in the third period and three in the final stanza after draining 10 points in each of the first-half quarters.

Stephenville outscored Mineral Wells 16-8 in the second half.

Mineral Wells can still take positives from the loss after going toe-to-toe with one of the top Class 4A programs, nearly pulling off the win in a thriller played out in their home gym.