No. 18 Irion County Girls Smother Aspermont to Reach Regional Final

COLEMAN, TX — The No. 18-ranked Irion County girls basketball team is rolling into the regional final with a freight train’s worth of momentum.

The Lady Hornets earned their third straight resounding playoff victory Monday, this time in a 60-30 win over Aspermont.

Irion County’s defense set the tone from the start, not allowing Aspermont to make a shot from the floor until there was 6:31 left in the second quarter.

Irion County led 31-16 at halftime before taking a commanding 47-22 lead into the final quarter.

“One of the main things our group does is we want to come out with energy, because we do better when we have energy. We get pumped up,” said Irion County junior Baylee Rainey. “So going into the game, it was high energy, high emotions, high attitude, because one of coach’s sayings is, ‘Effort and attitude is all we need,’ and I thought we brought that today, and that’s why we did so well.”

Irion County improved to 30-6 and will play Blackwell or Jayton in the Class 1A Division II regional final later this week at a site and time to be determined.

Aspermont’s season ended with a record of 21-8.

Irion County head coach Don Coffell said the team’s defense has become its biggest identity.

“That’s kind of what we’ve hung our hat on since about midway through the season. We really made some changes in the defense, and oh my gosh that picked up the energy across the board in the way we approached the defensive side of the ball,” Coffell said. “And we’re still learning. We’re still not as good as I think we can be on the defensive side.”

Irion County senior Berkley Callaway led the Lady Hornets’ defense with four steals to go along with eight points and four assists.

Fellow senior Acelyn Fowler had a game-high 15 points.

Junior Kyleigh Yant had 12 points, three assists, two steals and a block, while Rainey added 12 points, three assists and a steal.

Coffell praised the balance his team showed on offense.

“That’s what’s so beautiful about this bunch of girls. They’re very unselfish all the way across the board,” Coffell said.

Aspermont was led by Keslie Criswell, who had 13 points and six rebounds. Jessi Rabel had nine points and five rebounds.

After falling behind 15-5, Aspermont got within 17-11, but Irion County closed the first half strong, capped by a 3-pointer in the final seconds by Callaway.

This was the 14th win in a row for Irion County, which is now three wins away from a state title.

"We've been working at this since this summer, and we could see the potential," Rainey said. "We completely changed our game from what we've been used to with our new coach. We used to spread out the offense to get it set up, and now we're like go, go, go. So we knew going in that we had a good chance to go really far in the playoffs with this new strategy."

Irion County will await the winner of Tuesday's game between Blackwell and Jayton. Neither team is ranked, and Irion County already owns two wins over district rival Blackwell, one by 28 points and another by 8.

If Irion County advances to the state semifinals, the Lady Hornets would play No. 5 Nazareth, No. 12 Whitharral or No. 17 Texline. 

"I know the next round is going to be tough whether it's Jayton or Blackwell, because everybody's coming to win," Coffell said. "I truly believe that we are performing at a high level, and I still think there's some things we've got to clean up and get better at. Our hopes and dreams are San Antonio, and that's what we keep our focus on. And if we get there, that's great. And if we can't, that's OK, because we glorify God in everything we do. Every one of these girls do, and that's the main thing for us."