Christoval Girls Jump All Over Miles in Playoff Opener

SAN ANGELO, TX — The Christoval girls basketball team isn’t in the Top 25 rankings, but the Lady Cougars continue to look like they belong there.

Christoval raced to a commanding early lead in its playoff opener against Miles on Monday and cruised to a 65-28 win at Central’s Babe Didrikson Gym.

Led by their defense, the Lady Cougars had a 19-4 advantage by the end of the first quarter.

“We wanted to set the tone. The message before we came on the court was, ‘Leave no doubt,’” Christoval head coach Brad Blalock said. “We felt like we’ve been underrated and undervalued a bit in the polls. Not that it means that much, but we’ve got a good program, and we want to make sure we play the right kind of defense the right way, so it was important for us to get that fast start.”

Christoval will quickly find out where it stands against the best teams in the state in its second-round playoff game against No. 5 Whiteface at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Lamesa.

Whiteface is 32-2 and has won 25 games in a row.

Christoval, though unranked, is 27-7 and tested itself early against a difficult schedule.

The Lady Cougars went undefeated in their district, and they have a team capable of making a deep playoff run.

Christoval returned all five of its starters from last year’s team that reached the regional semifinals, including all-state players Halle Hughes and Madyson George.

"I feel like we can go pretty far and hopefully make it all the way to be honest," George said.

Hughes had 17 points, while George had 14 to lead Christoval on Monday.

“This group is a good group, and they want to do what they did last year,” Blalock said. “This is the first step, and so you’ve got to take care of the first one. I think we played a pretty complete game. We did a good job defensively and were able to score well enough.”

Christoval led 35-15 at halftime, then blew the game open with a big third quarter to take a 59-22 lead into the fourth.

Kaylin Workman added 10 points for Christoval, and Kaelyn Crain had 9.

Miles, which was a third-place finisher from its district, ended its season with a record of 16-11.

The Lady Bulldogs were led by Kendyl Riddle, who had 10 points and was a force with her rebounding.