Wylie freshman Sade Mathes pulls up for a jump shot against a McKinney defender on Tuesday. Photo by Tina Lopez / C&S Media
By Seth Dowdle
MCKINNEY – The high school basketball season didn’t start quite as the Wylie Lady Pirates expected it to. Just a couple of days before the campaign was set to get going, head coach Jessica Linson left for a job at another school, leaving the team without someone in charge and scrambling for a sense of normalcy.
Enter Nate Heckelman.
Heckelman came over from Garland, where he was an assistant, and immediately jumped in, building off last year’s successful trip to the postseason. More importantly, he brought stability, proclaiming before the season that it was his goal to build off the foundation Linson laid.
That’s already shown in quality performances against Ursuline Academy, Guyer and McKinney this past Tuesday, where the Lady Pirates looked far more settled than their .500 record suggested.
Wylie entered the game 2-2 with wins over Ursuline and Guyer, while also dropping two close contests by a combined four points to Byron Nelson (63-60) and Aledo (55-54), games that could have easily gone the other way.
From the opening tip, it was clear a close game wasn’t going to be on the table in Wylie’s 49-27 win over McKinney.
“The girls came out aggressive on both ends of the floor,” Heckelman said. “We were in the passing lanes on defense and attacking the basket on offense. When we do those things early, it opens up a lot of opportunities for everyone.”
The Lady Pirates roared out to a 20-3 lead after the first quarter, thanks in part to a dominant effort by Maryam Nofal, who scored five straight points, including a three-point play the old-fashioned way.
That lead held despite a sluggish second quarter. Wylie didn’t score for the first four-and-a-half minutes until Shamya Johnson sunk a layup at the 3:32 mark.
“We just need to space the floor,” Heckelman said. “I think at times we get a little bunched up on offense where we allow one player to guard two. There are also times where we allow the defense to only have to defend one pass and if we reverse the ball we can open looks to get out of the rut.”
Even then, it was 26-9 at halftime, and McKinney never seriously threatened.
Wylie’s offense picked back up in the third behind baskets from Johnson and Ronelyse Hartfield. In fact, it was a Johnston three-pointer with roughly five minutes left that stopped a McKinney push and ended any lingering comeback hopes.
In the end, it was all Wylie in the 49-27 win.
Johnson led the way with 16 points. Sade Mathes added 10, Hartfield had nine and Nofal finished with five.
“I think we play as a very unselfish team,” Heckelman said. “It is fun to watch the girls play together because they don’t care who scores. They just want to win.”
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