SNYDER — The Westbrook girls basketball team trailed for most of the first half and on five occasions in the fourth quarter in Friday’s Region II-1A semifinal against Irion County, but a 6-2 run to close the game allowed the Lady Cats to celebrate a tense 47-44 win over the Lady Hornets at the Western Texas College Coliseum.

 In all, the game featured five ties and 11 lead changes — 10 of those in the final period. But Kenlee Gilbreath’s free throws with just over two seconds remaining increased a one-point Westbrook lead to three, and Melanie Rainey’s long 3-point attempt at the buzzer was no good, clinching the Lady Cats a spot in Saturday’s region championship game against No. 4 Eula.

The victory improved WHS to 27-9 on the season and put coach Jeff Bontrager’s squad one win away from its second state tournament appearance since 2021.

“(Our girls) were very resilient, and so was the other team,” the Westbrook coach said. “It was just a great high school basketball game. Both teams were prepared. I thought our girls executed really well.”

After a competitive start that saw Westbrook answer each of Irion County’s first three field goals to tie the game at 2, 4 and 7, the Lady Hornets used an 8-4 run to close the first quarter with a 15-11 lead.

The Lady Cats (25-9) rallied to tie the game at 19 late in the second quarter, but 5-0 Irion County run in the final minute of the period allowed the Lady Hornets to take a 24-19 advantage into halftime.

Momentum shifted after the break, as Westbrook opened the third quarter on a 13-2 run, taking its first lead of the game at 25-24 before stretching its advantage to a game-high six points (32-26) with 3:09 remaining in the third quarter. But again Irion County closed the quarter strong, pulling within two (34-32) by the start of the final period. 

The Lady Hornets tied the game with the first bucket of the fourth quarter before regaining the lead at 36-34, starting a back-and-forth stretch of 10 lead changes over the final six minutes of the game.

Westbrook took the lead for good at 45-44 on a layup by freshman post Raenee Rich with 1:45 remaining, but the drama was far from over at that point.

After defending for almost a minute, the Lady Cats secured a big stop to protect their one-point advantage, and Irion County elected not to foul on the other end.

Following a Westbrook timeout with less than 12 seconds remaining, the Lady Hornets forced a turnover on the inbounds pass, creating a transition opportunity for the lead. But Irion County couldn’t get its fast break layup to go down, forcing a quick foul and enabling Gilbreath to increase WHS’ lead to three with her clutch free throws. 

“(After the steal), it was like, ‘What offense are we fixing to do? What play are we going to run?’ Because no way did I think she’s going to miss that layup,” Bontrager said. “As a coach, you don’t want to see the turnover to begin with, but we did a good job of not just letting her go. We had people there to get the rebound, and that was huge, too.”

Westbrook was led in the win by Rich, who finished with 14 points on a game high-tying five field goals. Senior Tae Morris also reached double figures with 10 points, while Gilbreath scored eight and Hazel Lord added six.

Melanie Rainey paced Irion County with 16 points, followed by Presli Cormier with10 and Baylee Rainey and Kassandra Martinez with six.

Rich’s big game came against Irion County’s talented junior post Acelyn Fowler, who fouled out in the fourth quarter with just two points.

“She’s young, but she’s been huge for us,” Bontrager said of his 6-foot-1 post player. “Even when she’s not scoring, she draws attention. I can’t say enough good things about her. I’m really proud of her and how she’s progressed in her game.”

Up next for the Lady Cats is another tough matchup against Eula (33-4) for the region title and a spot at the Class 1A state tournament next week in San Antonio.

Bontrager said he’s looking forward to the challenge feels and like his team is already playing with house money.

“Our thing every year in our program is to get to regional,” the coach said. “Some people might say, ‘Our goal is state,’ but Texas is a tough place to get to go to state, and there are a lot of tough teams in the way of that. So we make our goal to get to regional and enjoy that experience and then we’ll see what happens.

“(Friday), we did enough to get in that championship game, and now we’ve got to get focused up on that.”

REGION II-1A SEMIFINAL

WESTBROOK 47, IRION COUNTY 44

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th		Final
Westbrook	11	8	15	13	—	47
Irion County	15	9	8	12	—	44

Westbrook (27-9) — Cassidy Walker 0 2-6 2, Tae Morris 3 3-4 10, Savannah Chavez 1 0-0 2, Hazel Lord 2 2-3 6, Raenee Rich 5 4-6 14, Kenlee Gilbreath 2 2-2 8, Grace Potter 1 0-0 3, Brylee Martin 0 2-2 2. Totals 14 15-23 47.

Irion County (25-9) — Baylee Rainey 2 2-4 6, Acelyn Fowler 1 0-0 2, Presli Cormier 5 0-0 10, Melanie Rainey 5 4-4 16, Berkley Callaway 1 0-0 2, Kyleigh Yant 1 0-0 2, Kassandra Martinez 0 6-6 6. Totals 15 12-14 44.

3-Point Goals — Westbrook 4 (Morris 1, Gilbreath 2, Potter 1); Irion County 2 (Rainey 2). Fouled Out — Fowler. Technical Fouls — None. Total Fouls — Westbrook 18; Irion County 14.