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It didn’t take long for Steele to squash an early glimmer of hope for Taft.
Thanks to some hot outside shooting, the Knights ran away with a 69-46 victory in a Class 6A first-round playoff Monday at Veterans Memorial.
Steele drained 12 3-pointers, including six in the first quarter, to breeze to victory.
“Anytime you come out and hit shots, especially 3-pointers, it’s good for you,” Steele coach Jeffery Chatman said. “It’s a good momentum-builder for what we like to do.”
The Knights (28-6) were led by freshman Aja Holmes, who had 19 points and five 3-pointers. Senior Antonia Anderson had 16 points and four treys.
“Our thing was to come out hot, and we did,” Holmes said. “We kept shooting and shots were falling and it made the game tempo go by faster.”
Taft (22-10) held a brief 5-3 lead before Steele answered by scoring 11 of the next 13 points. Anderson led the early onslaught. She made three treys — two from the right corner and another from the top that banked in. Holmes scored two 3-pointers and Kianja Cain added another as Steele took a 23-13 lead after one quarter.
Steele’s Aja Holmes
The outside shooting set up everything for Steele. The Knights were able to generate offense off their full-court press. Steele’s aggressive play overwhelmed Taft.
The Raiders were led by Stephanie Ruiz, who had 15 points on five 3-pointers. Tierra Tullis had 10 points.
Steele led by many as 30 midway through the third quarter.
The Knights face the winner of Tuesday’s playoff between Madison and Buda Hays later this week.
Steele has the area’s longest winning streak among Class 6A teams at 11 games.
“At this point of the season, you want to be playing pretty good basketball,” Chatman said. “When you come out with a good, solid win, it’s huge for us and hopefully continues to propel us to keep winning.”
Steele last lost against Judson, 55-39, on Jan. 3.
“I love the way we are playing right now,” Chatman said. “The nice thing is there are things we can get better at. I love the way we are playing right now. Ever since the Judson loss, we’ve turned things on and got things going.”
dhinojosa@express-news.net
Twitter: @hinojosa_david
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