Ladycats make history with school’s first state title

The long, arduous journey of a season reached its peak Saturday morning when the Newcastle Ladycats were crowned Class 1A state champions after they defeated the Turkey Valley Lady Patriots 48-32.

As the final buzzer sounded, the players mobbed each other in the center of the court as the reality of what they just did set in. Tears flowed, smiles shined and emotions ran high as the team received the state championship trophy and gold medals.

For Newcastle, this is the first state basketball title in school history and will go down as one of the greatest athletic accomplishments in the community all time.

“I'm standing there as they're presenting the medals and trophies and it's like, ‘Is this real? Is this really happening for us?’” head coach Ryan Dollar said.

“Honestly, I think that none of us thought we would make it this far. Probably most of our fans didn't think so either because no one had ever done it before,” junior and state MVP Mattie Dollar said. “But once all of us bought in it was just amazing to see us really come together as a team and start to play unsolvable defense and work together so well on offense. I think because of that the school will remember us forever and it'll be so cool to look back on this moment in the future.”

Newcastle (35-1) faced their toughest opponent of the season in Turkey Valley (37-3) and while it was one of the closer games of the season, the Ladycats looked to be in control the whole game. They never trailed in the game, despite their lead taking some time to build up before the final score looked like nearly every game they’ve played this year.

The start of the game felt like a Newcastle victory. The Ladycats jumped out to an 8-0 lead with five early points from Dollar with freshmen Kenzie King and Camren Mallory contributing, as well.

Coach Dollar has preached defense all season and it showed as Turkey Valley didn’t score their first points of the game until more than five minutes into it. The Ladycats blew past the Lady Patriots and led 13-4 by the end of the first quarter.

“We came out and I thought we did outstanding defensively,” Coach Dollar said. “Offensively, we control the game, which is what we talked about. Push them off, we can push it, slow it down and control the game when we need to, and I think we did an amazing job of that today.”

Dollar was clearly the focus of Turkey Valley’s defense and they did whatever they could to slow her down. In the second quarter, the Ladycats went through a bit of a scoring drought for nearly four minutes which allowed the Lady Patriots to close the gap.

But in the final minute of the first half, Mallory nailed a close-range jump shot and Dollar made two free throws to give Newcastle the 22-15 lead heading into halftime.

The rest of the way Turkey Valley couldn’t get much closer than five or six points. The Ladycats always seemed to find an answer despite the challenges from the Lady Patriots’ defense.

In this final matchup, Newcastle struggled to get shots to fall but it didn’t matter because they did everything else so well. The Ladycats rebounded at a high level, moved the ball around where they needed to and made the defensive stops when necessary.

Newcastle outrebounded Turkey Valley 37-27 and were led by their two leaders in Dollar and senior Mya Cabrera, while receiving nine rebounds from Mallory.

In the fourth and final quarter, as the Ladycats’ players, coaches and fans could sense what was coming, they kept their composure and continued to execute. The Ladycats shot 60% from the field in the fourth period and went 10-of-12 (83%) from the free throw line to seal the championship win.

For Coach Dollar and his players, this was just another game. But the magnitude was clear to all those present who witnessed the team make history.

“We really haven’t played scared all year long. Even Thursday (in the semifinal), we show up and it's just for the girls, I'm like, ‘Do they know where we're at?’” Coach Dollar said. “...Even though we jumped up to a good start, I was scared until the last buzzer. It needs to be over, the clock needs to run. But again, these girls showed up to play and (were) just amazing, amazing, amazing.”

Dollar earned MVP honors for her performance as she finished with a game-high 24 points, 11 rebounds and three assists. Cabrera also recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Mallory ended with 9 points, nine rebounds and an assist, while sophomore Sophie Terrell and King finished with 2 points and 3 points, respectively.

“We have to make sure we play hard. We have to have fun and we have to learn something,” Coach Dollar said. “That's our three goals every single time we step on the floor, and I don't know what y'all saw on the floor, but that's what I saw.”

Ladycats named to All-Tournament team

Throughout their two games in the state tournament, the Ladycats had three players who excelled and played above and beyond. Junior Mattie Dollar, senior Mya Cabrera and freshman Camren Mallory were named to the 2024 All-Tournament team for Class 1A as selected by the Texas Girls Coaches Association.