Paradise’s hounding defense has put the Lady Panthers a tier above their competition nearly the entire year, and it showed its teeth once again Friday at McKinney Boyd High School.
The Lady Panthers (31-4) held Commerce to single digits in three quarters of play in their second-round matchup, turning elite ball stopping and shot prevention into a runaway win, 56-31.
While Paradise gave up a hefty size advantage to the Lady Tigers, it wasn’t a problem Paradise is unfamiliar with mitigating. Between their full-court press and quality team defense, Commerce’s usual playmakers were kept in check by the Lady Panthers.
“We’ve been undersized for 35 games. It’s nothing we aren’t used to other than maybe one or two games here and there,” Paradise coach Michael Barnes said. “We’ve really been working on exploiting [Commerce’s] offense and using some tactics to erase their size from the equation. We absolutely did that tonight.”
Commerce was shellshocked from tip-off with Paradise’s defense. The Lady Tigers were held to just a single free throw through 8 minutes of play while Paradise guard Hartley Barnes led the Lady Panthers with 7 points in the first quarter.
She said Paradise was “trying to steal everything” in the first frame, and it showed.
“We had to be aggressive at the top since they were bigger than us,” Hartley Barnes said. “And we were. We got after them.”
Commerce showed some fight in the second quarter that had been absent early in the game. The Lady Tigers opened the frame by scoring on three consecutive possessions for a 7-2 run by the 6:03 mark, then cut the Paradise lead to seven (21-14) a couple minutes later after I’Zariah Kilson’s shot from deep.
After the offensive burst by Commerce, Paradise replied with an 8-4 run to close out the first half, where sophomore guard Allie McCormick scored 4 of her 15 points. Commerce outmatched Paradise in the third quarter offensively, but the early lead by the Lady Panthers kept them in the driver’s seat after the second quarter.
“Teammates were finding me and we were all trying to get the ball around,” McCormick said. “We were all setting solid screens and getting to the basket when a path opened up. The teamwork is what made the offense work tonight.”
Paradise was back to its way of throttling Commerce defensively in the third quarter. The Lady Tigers landed just a pair of field goals in the third frame, while the Lady Panthers outgunned the Lady Tigers 16-4.
Hartley Barnes, who led Paradise with 5 points in the third quarter, said the Lady Panthers tried playing an outside-in approach as an offensive workaround.
“We knew we couldn’t really shoot over them, so we were pulling up early or taking deeper shots,” she said. “We also had to box out hard and just try to be more aggressive on the inside.
Paradise finished with an 11-9 fourth quarter to sew up the area championship.
McCormick and Hartley Barnes finished with 15 points each. Vivian Caddell and Jayci Barnes both had 7, while Renlee Longenbaugh landed a pair of 3-pointers.
Coach Barnes said in the game he saw shades of Paradise’s win against Tatum last year, another contest where the Lady Panthers gave up a size mismatch but were still successful.
“That game last year really flipped the switch for this program,” he said. “It was a big moment for the core players then, and a lot of those same girls are core players now. And then you add girls like Lainey [Munden], Hartley, Mackey [McQueen], Vivian [Caddell] to the team, who all played great tonight.”
Paradise plays Hooks 6 p.m. Feb. 24 in the 3A Division II Region II Semifinal at Bonham High School. The Lady Hornets have collected postseason wins against Chapel Hill (54-30) and Edgewood (53-26).
“After going to state last year, our mission this year became finishing the job,” McCormick said. “We have to do that one game at a time, and you can’t overlook anybody. We’re going to keep showing up locked in and ready to play.”
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