SAN ANTONIO — It wasn't pretty but, hey, they don't give style points in basketball. The bottom line is all that matters.
In a game marred by 54 turnovers, perennial power Duncanville did just enough to beat defending champion Judson 45-36 in the Class 6A girls state semifinals Saturday night at the Alamodome.
"In a game like this, you not only have to be physically strong, you have to be mentally strong," Rockets coach Triva Corrales said. "I think both of those things kind of nipped us in the behind, and the fatigue factor obviously played a role.
"But I give credit to Duncanville. They're a monster all over. Every time you turn around, there's one or two of them right there in your shorts. So we did the best we could."
Duncanville (39-3) plays Cypress Creek (41-0) for the championship Saturday at 8:30 p.m. Cypress Creek edged McKinney 54-51 in the other 6A semifinal.
Duncanville has won 10 state titles and reached the state tournament 26 times. The Pantherettes beat Judson in the state semifinals in 2017, the year the Rockets started their run of four straight state tournament appearances.
A crowd of 2,962 watched Duncanville lead from wire to wire. Judson, which beat DeSoto in last year's title game, finished 33-9.
"They played their hearts out and they did the best they could," Corrales said of her players. "Inexperience, ironically, got us, although we've been here four years. It was a lack of experience, being able to keep our composure and not panic, and things like that.
"But I'm still very proud of them. What a tremendous feat that they did. They proved everybody wrong all season long, game by game, playoff game by playoff game."
The Rockets (32) and Pantherettes (22) finished with a combined 54 turnovers. The sloppy ballhandling and errant passes proved to be Judson's undoing, although Duncanville looked like anything but the top-ranked team in the state.
"They did speed us up," junior guard Kierra Sanderlin said. "We did play out of our game. We came out running whatever (offensively) and didn't hold our composure this game. We were kind of everywhere."
Sanderlin scored a game-high 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting and added a team-high nine rebounds. But she also finished with 12 turnovers.
"I felt she struggled early, but that's a kid that's a fighter," Corrales said of Sanderlin. "You have to remember she's only a junior. She's going to get better. You can't fault her because she's the one who actually helped us get to this point. We'll keep riding her as long as we can."
Both teams played at a fast pace, which contributed to the turnovers.
"We didn't want them to be able to just bully us," Corrales said. "We wanted to give them a taste of their own medicine. We knew we just had to take a chance on that.
Sanderlin was the only player who scored in double figures for the Rockets, who shot 50 percent overall (14-28) but went 0 for 6 from the three-point line.
Sanderlin scored on a layup to cut the Pantherettes' lead to three (33-30) with 1:01 left, but the Rockets could get no closer.
Senior guard Deja Kelly, who has signed with North Carolina, led the Duncanville scoring with 13 points and Zaria Rufus finished with a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Pantherettes shot 38.3 percent (18-47) from the field for the game and made 2 of 8 three-pointers.
Led by Kelly, the Pantherettes were up 29-19 at the half. Kelly scored 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting, but she scored only two points in the second half. The Pantherettes ended the second quarter with a 7-0 run, holding the Rockets scoreless for the last three minutes of the half.
Sanderlin paced the Rockets with 11 points and six rebounds in the first half. But she also had seven turnovers before the break.
Duncanville was ahead 14-10 after one quarter and outscored Judson 15-9 to build a 10-point lead at the half.
The Pantherettes shot 41.4 percent overall (12-29) and 33.3 percent (2-6) from three-point range. The Rockets hit 7 of 18 shots from the field for 38.9 percent and was 0 of 4 from beyond the arc.
