On Tuesday night, the Coppell girls basketball team was defeated, 52-45, by Plano East at CHS Arena. 

The final two minutes of the game were action packed with a 46-43 gap in favor of Plano East. Every time the Cowgirls seemed close to closing the gap, Plano East would drive down the court for a quick score resulting in numerous score changes (46-43, 48-43, 48-45, 50-55 and 52-45) and time outs.

“Honestly, I thought we were gonna win it and pull it out,” senior guard Ella Spiller said. “We just weren’t tough.”

There were only two moments in the game that the Cowgirls had a lead over Plano East, and both came in the first quarter when Coppell was at 2-0 and again when they were at 4-3.

At the start of the second quarter there seemed to be a surge on offense almost immediately with sophomore guard HC Harding hitting a 3-pointer and junior guard Landry Sherrer driving down the court for two points right after back to back defensive stops bringing the score to 17-14 in favor of Plano East.

“You never know what rest you’re gonna get,” Spiller said. “I think our issue was that we weren’t tough, we weren’t us.”

Throughout the game Plano East freshman point guard Kennedy Borders proved to be a problem for the Cowgirls who were unable to slow down her aggressive play style. Borders along with the rest of panthers forced 14 fouls in the first quarter alone resulting in several successful free throws that contributed to Plano East’s 14-12 lead at the end of the quarter.

“I mean, they got good pieces,” Spiller said. “It’s always been a little bit of a rivalry but we didn’t use it very well in the game at all. There were a lot of fouls tonight just throughout the game.”

The Cowgirls play Plano Senior  on Friday at CHS Arena at 7 p.m.

“I hope we’ll come out tough,” Spiller said. “We need to win. The big word is tough. And consistency. So we’ll see which team we get. I hope it’s the tough team.”

Follow Nyah (@nyah_rama) and @CHSCampusNews on X.