A minute remains on the clock as the third quarter nears its end. The Coppell girls basketball team and Little Elm are tied. A tense timeout later, the Cowgirls pull ahead in the lead once again.

Coppell won 44-31 against Little Elm on Thursday at CHS Arena. The game was rescheduled from Tuesday to Thursday due to winter weather and school closings.

Coppell led in the first quarter, opening the scoring with a 3-pointer. Both teams played a close game, each holding their own. Nearing the end of the first quarter, Coppell maintained a slight 9-7 lead.

“It was kind of a hard week, since we weren’t in school,” Coppell coach Kit Pehl said. “We knew it would be ugly, and we struggled a little bit, but I’m glad we could struggle and still win.”

Heading into the second quarter, Coppell expanded its lead. Eventually nearing the end, with only seconds left, Little Elm starts to narrow that gap, ending the second quarter with Coppell leading 24-19.

In the third quarter, Little Elm pulled even with the Cowgirls to tie the game at 26.

“I think we all kind of realized like dang, we were really not doing great,” Coppell senior forward Adriana Reijnen said. “So we kind of took that and locked in and moved forward from there and made some good shots.”

As the third quarter neared its end, Coppell regained its lead.

“I think running certain plays was good,” sophomore guard Amber Coffey said. “We did really well on the ball screen actions.”

The Cowgirls began to widen the gap once more in the final quarter, finishing with the 13-point victory.

“I thought we turned it over. We probably had more turnovers in the first half than we did in all of our last games, and that was a little disappointing,” Pehl said. “But at the same time, it was good that we dug deep in the end and figured out a way to win.”

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