Wheatley Wildcats head to basketball state tournament

HOUSTON – The Wheatley Wildcats are going to the 4A girls basketball state tournament.

Big news for any high school but this is the furthest a Lady Wildcats team has advanced in the school's 90-year history.

"Amazing. This is really, just for the community and everybody that's around us," Arianna Taylor said. "It's a good feeling. It's a great feeling."

Senior Keahundra Lowery feels the same.

"I've been playing here since my freshman year," she said. "It just feels great knowing that the team that we have always had finally got the chance as a senior team to go to state."

Dedreck Carr has been their head coach for four years. He says in addition to the hard work, confidence and teamwork his girls display they had a plan going into this season.

"Getting mentally prepared for every game at task," Carr said. "We scheduled a hard schedule at the beginning so that we can make a big run at the end."

And the Lady Wildcats aren't just taking their 31-3 record into this weekend's tournament. They say they also are carrying the Fifth Ward and the entire community with them.

"We take this serious, as I said for the community," Taylor said. "We don't just do it for ourselves. We do it for everybody around us."

The Lady Wildcats will play their semifinal game in Austin this Friday afternoon at 1:30. If they win that game they will play for the state title Saturday evening at 7.


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