Defending its undefeated record, the Coppell girls basketball team defeated Sanger on Tuesday night in Coppell High School Arena, 50-31.

According to Coppell coach Ryan Murphy, both teams played great first half defense with the Cowgirls leading, 18-7, at halftime.  

“[Sanger] played a zone on us [to] slow us down,” Coppell senior forward India Howard said. “If they played man they wouldn’t have been able to keep up with us, which was smart on their part. They played a zone to try to slow us down and they did.”

During halftime, the Cowgirls made adjustments to increase its lead. 

“We talked about being more aggressive, pushing the ball, and transition,” Murphy said. “Getting your eyes on the rim and looking for the high-low opportunities.”

In the fourth quarter, Howard shut down Sanger senior Bella Ringenberg and made sure she was not a scoring threat. Combined with the aggressiveness of Coppell senior Kimberly Obialo, the Cowgirls were able to increase their lead by 20.

“Obialo had that steal in the fourth quarter and that sparked us,” Murphy said. “Just full out effort and that gave us the energy and then [we went on] an 8-0 run.”

Sanger played a respectable game against the Cowgirls, making it difficult to score.

“Our girls thought they were a smaller school but obviously they hung with us for three quarters,” Murphy said. “Right now, our challenge is just locking in and not believing our own hype [while] playing hard and doing what got us to where we’re at.”

Follow Nick and @SidekickSports on Twitter.