The mood of the arena is tense as the clock counts down. Parents and students chant “Defense” as Eaton scores more and more points. As time expires, Coppell High School Arena exhales in relief. 

On Monday, the Coppell girls basketball team won 56-46 against Eaton on Tuesday in its home opener.

Coppell had a strong first half, leading at halftime 35-18. However, in the second half, the team began to lose traction as Eaton mounted its comeback.

“We got comfortable with the lead that we had in the first half and we rode that through the second half,” Coppell coach Ravyn Terry said. “I felt we let up a bit. We didn’t execute defensively particularly well or offensively well and I felt that Eaton came out with some energy and we didn’t match it.”

According to Terry, the Cowgirls are working on unifying in practice to work better as a team. For players such as junior forward Kaitlin Keith, joining the team following the conclusion of volleyball season, this game was a good start.

“It was definitely fun to be out there for the first time this season,” Keith said. “I feel like everyone was very supportive of each other. We were working very hard and hustling.”

Terry thinks the team needs to focus more on reading defensive and offensive plays. She hopes to work in practice this week in preparation for next week’s game against Southlake Carroll.

”We need to read the defense and do more playing basketball versus being robots,” Terry said. “We won, so that’s positive. I’ll take a win any night, even if it’s an ugly win. We just gotta get in practice and clean some things up.”

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