They faced Caprock last Friday and came away with a 44-32 win over the Lady Longhorns.

Continuing their winning streak, the girls went up against Plainview this Tuesday night. Canyon added yet another win with a score of 44-30.

The Lady Eagles will travel to Frenship tomorrow. Freshmen begin at 4:30 p.m., JV at 7:30 p.m., and varsity at 6 p.m.

The Eagles’ perfect season seems to have caused other teams to scare and make purposeful fouls against some of Canyon’s core players. After the Monreal twins’ injuries Lombard said they had to change their mindset halfway through the district season.

“I definitely feel the girls have improved during the last month, “ Lombard said. “We are finding ways to win close games, which is a huge positive. Individually the girls are improving as we continue to work on fundamentals.”

Some of the improvements Lombard plans on working on are fouling less and keeping the other team off the free throw line.

“The PD game was a very physical game and I was proud of the way the girls competed,” Lombard said. “The inside play was sometimes like a war zone but I thought our girls handled it fine.”

Lombard said they executed their offense, played well defensively, and took care of the basketball in the end of the game against PD. He said 3-4A is one of the strongest districts in the state and anyone in the league can beat anyone on a given night.

“We can’t take it lightly anymore,” junior Kyndal Davis said. “We can’t take it as we’re automatically going to win.”

“District this year is going to be very tough,” head coach Joe Lombard said. “Many teams will play aggressive, and it’s going to be a dogfight.”

Lombard said fans will see a team that plays hard and plays together with a great team chemistry. In addition, they are working to perfect skills.

 “We are going to have to work on offense and ball handling,” Lombard said. “We had great defense in the Tournament of Champions.”

In the tournament, the team had a major loss when sisters and seniors Shayla and Shawna Monreal suffered identical knee injuries. Shawna injured her left knee during the semifinals, and Shayla injured her left knee the next day in the championship match against Spearman.

“My heart breaks for them, because we are best friends and they are irreplaceable,” senior Morgan Dean said. “Everyone on the team has stepped up, and we all just have to remain faithful.”

Dean said that she has a positive outlook on the upcoming Randall game.

“It is going to be a tough game, and we are going to have to work hard,” Dean said. “But it’s nothing that we can’t handle.”

The team will face Randall tonight at home with freshmen playing at 4:30 p.m., JV at 7:30 p.m. and varsity at 6 p.m.

MaxPreps is a CBS Sports branch focused on high school athletics around the country which nominates coaches and players annually for their national awards. According to MaxPreps representative Mike Wilkes, who presented Lombard with the award, the nomination process included more than 55,000 varsity girls’ coaches in the United States.

“The editing staff narrowed it down to five, and then the fans voted for one of them,” Wilkes said. “Each coach we nominated won multiple titles, coached for decades and has a winning record on and off the court.”

Lombard won the award over top softball, volleyball and basketball coaches, including Kevin Kiernan, coach of the girls’ basketball national champions, the Mater Dei Monarchs of Santa Ana, California, and Richard Jorgenson, coach of the No. 1 Woodlands, Texas softball team in both the editor and computer rankings.

“I never really thought that much about winning the award,” Lombard said. “I thought it looked bad when my wife said she accidentally voted for one of the other nominees.”

Lombard attributed this season’s accomplishments to the girls’ commitment to their coaches and each other every day of the season.

“They were the ultimate ‘team,’” Lombard said. “Each player was unselfish and everyone sacrificed for her team to be successful. We carried 15 players for the playoffs, so we had to make adjustments for practicing with more kids.”

Even after 15 state titles during Lombard’s 33 years as a coach, winning the championship hasn’t lost any luster or sense of accomplishment over time.

“The 15^th championship felt like the first,” Lombard said. “It was one of the great moments in Lady Eagle history to finish 38-0 and state champions. The team motto was ‘step up’—and they delivered.”

Lombard also won National Coach of the Year from Russell Athletics and USA Today in 2003 when the Lady Eagles won 3A State and the USA Today National Championship.

The team had high-scoring games until the semi-finals game against Plainview. The game came down to the wire with the Eagles trailing by 11 points in the fourth quarter then catching up to the Bulldogs in last few minutes, sending the game into overtime. In the end, Canyon won by two points, 42-40.

“After the buzzer went off, I realized we had just won,” senior Ashton Pedigo said. “I ran to the bench and squeezed whoever was in front of me.”

To remain undefeated for the season and win the state championship, the girls had to beat Beaumont Ozen in the semi-finals and Austin Johnson in the state finals. In another set of games that went right down to the wire, Canyon bested Ozen 44-39 and then won the state game with the same score, 44-39.

The state final game featured a true team effort that included three-point shots from seniors Nicole Hampton, Macy Myrick and Madison Russ while injured junior Shayla Monreal sank two three-point balls.  A game-changing rebound score by junior Morgan Dean marked the turnaround in the game that headed the girls toward the title.

“We were just hoping to make the playoffs when this season started, and they’ve come together so well,” Lombard said. “Everyone plays their role. I’m so grateful to coach these guys—honored.”

For all the girls except Hampton, who helped earn gold her freshman year, this was the first trip to the state tournament.

“Nicole was only one who has even been here before, so it’s all new to the rest our team, and for them to have the kind of poise they had was pretty remarkable,” Lombard said.

Russ called Lombard’s program amazing and acknowledged the accomplishment of a long-term goal.

“We worked for this since we were little,” Russ said. “You just come through this school wanting to win a state championship.”

Hampton said she told her teammates have fun with the state experience.

“I told them to go out there, enjoy the atmosphere and play like it’s just any normal game,” Hampton said.

For her performance in the state tournament, Hampton was named the Ford Tough Player of the Game and MVP of the state 4A tournament.

“You always dream of going to the Drum and winning a state championship,” Hampton said. “Winning the MVP is just the cherry on top.”

The basketball team escaped with a win in overtime against district opponent Plainview Feb. 26.  The Eagles had a tough game with a score of 16-16 at halftime.  The Bulldogs gained the upper hand in the second half and outscored the girls. With two minutes left the Eagles surged and tied the score.

“I’m just proud of my team,” senior Nicole Hampton said. “We kept fighting until the very end and never gave up.”

In overtime, the Eagles out-battled the Bulldogs to win by two points, the closest game all year.

“After the buzzer went off, I realized we had just won,” senior Ashton Pedigo said. “I ran to the bench and squeezed whoever was in front of me.”

The girls, after defeating  Beaumont Ozen with a score of 44-39 will play in the state game against Lady Bird Johnson High for the state title Saturday, March 5.

Canyon stormed Randall in the first half without breaking a sweat. Seniors Ashton Pedigo and Courtney Erwin worked down low with several rebounds off of missed baskets. Both teams worked the free throw line due to fouls.

The second half turned into a shoot out with Randall periodically making quick surges of scoring before the Lady Eagles would shut them out. The Eagles added another win to the season putting them at 22-0 and securing their first place rank in the state.

The girls’ next game will be Feb.1 at Plainview versus the Bulldogs.

The Canyon girls have dominated the competition in the regular season with Randall being the closest to upsetting the Eagles, staying within 11 points.

The girls hold an undefeated season of 20-0 with three games left in the regular season, all against district opponents that Canyon has already bested.

The team will play the Randall Raiders Jan. 25, and the Frenship Tigers Feb. 4 at home, and Plainview Feb. 2 at Plainview.

Tuesday’s game against Pampa was the girls last home game.

“It’s kind of sad because us senior girls have been playing together since third grade,” Land said. “This was our last time to play in our home gym it was to a special night.”

The girls remain ranked second in state behind Timberview after a suffering a loss provided by the Lady Wolves.

The girls will most likely play Timberview in playoffs on their way to the state championship or in the championship game its self.

“It will be a revenge game to prove that we are number one in the state,” Vessels said. “We are excited to get the opportunity to play them again.”

The girls are currently 12-0 in district.

“It’s always fun to be in playoffs, and play for a state championship,” Vessels said. “I really believe we can win state this year.”

The girls enter playoffs with a 63.1 team scoring average. Leading individual scores are junior Nichole Hampton with a 15.5 average, senior Casey Land at 12.6, and Vessels at a 9.8 average per game.

“Individually, scoring is not important,” Land said. “To me it’s about how our team plays together. It’s cool this year because the high scorer is different every game.”