The top-ranked Wall girls basketball team advanced to the Class 3A Division II state championship game for the first time since 2016 with a 54-51 win over No. 6 Paradise in the state semifinal game Tuesday, March 3, at Comanche High School.
The Lady Hawks (36-3) and Lady Panthers (33-4) traded the lead five times and were separated by one point twice in the final three minutes. With 17 seconds left, guard McKenzie Lopez sank two free throws to give Wall a 54-51 lead, while the Lady Hawks’ signature half-court defense smothered Paradise to seal the win.
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Sophomore guard Jewles Johnson led Wall with a game-high 22 points and added four rebounds, two blocks and a steal. Senior guard Kennedi Graves was the game’s second-leading scorer with 15 points, while also grabbing five rebounds.
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Jayci Barnes led the Lady Panthers with 14 points, including a nine-point second quarter. The senior forward fouled out late in the fourth quarter. Her sister, freshman guard Hartley Barnes, had 13 points, including a 3-pointer that brought the score to within one point with 27 seconds left.
“I think the word I’ve used over and over on this whole playoff journey is resiliency,” Wall coach Silas Crisler said. “We expect to get everybody’s best shot every single game, and we’ve seen a lot of punches, and our kids have just responded so many times. We’re up seven, and they cut it to one, and I look at the composure of our kids, and they’re just even-keeled and never nervous for the moment. They just continue to find ways to impress me. It’s game 39, we played so many games, yet I still find ways to get impressed and blown away by just their ability to fight, fight, fight.”
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Game-changing plays
Wall got out to a commanding 6-1 lead in the first two minutes before the Lady Panthers’ full-court press created a few Lady Hawk turnovers, resulting in a 3-9 run for Paradise.
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Wall girls basketball’s Jewels Johnson (5) attempts a 3-pointer against Idalou at WTC Coliseum in Snyder on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026.
The Lady Hawks regained control of the game by the end of the first quarter and led 18-17. Paradise started the second quarter on a 7-0 run led by Jayci Barnes, but Wall showed its resilience by regaining the lead with a five-point quarter from Graves. The Lady Hawks finished the second half on a 9-1 run and led 27-25.
Once again, the game tightened up and was tied 30-30 with 4:29 left in the third quarter. After that, Johnson led Wall on a 12-2 run, giving the Lady Hawks their biggest lead of the night at 42-32 by the end of the third quarter. Johnson was responsible for 10 of their 15 points.
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In the fourth quarter, the Lady Panthers made their first run at the three-minute mark, bringing the game to within one point at 46-45. The Lady Hawks fought to regain a two-score lead at 52-45 with 1:56 left, but Paradise again pulled within 52-51 with 27 seconds left. That’s when Wall beat the full-court press, and Lopez sank her two free-throw attempts and got the game to its 54-51 conclusion.
They said it
Crisler on the performance from Johnson: “I sound like a broken record — she’s a special player. She knows when to pick her moments, when to pick her spots to be aggressive, and she did that tonight. She understands the game of basketball, and she knows what we need from her to win.”
Crisler on Kennedi Graves’ bounce back game: “(Graves) is a great kid. She doesn’t care what her stats look like. She just wants to win. She’s selfless, she’s a leader. And for her, it was just hard. I mean, you’re a senior that has really done a lot for us offensively all year, and back-to-back games against very disciplined teams in Idalou and Coahoma, they swallow you up, and they face-guarded her and wouldn’t let her catch it. So, she would put the ball on the ground and create plays for others. And then tonight, we learned quickly that they were leaving her open, and so we saw that and my eyes lit up, like ‘Oh, (Graves) is gonna have a good night tonight,’ and she did exactly that.”
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What’s next?
The Lady Hawks advance to the Class 3A Division II state championship game, where they will face off against No. 24 Central Heights (32-5) at 1 p.m. Friday at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
CLASS 3A DIVISION II STATE SEMIFINAL PLAYOFF GAME
Wall 54, Paradise 51
Wall 18 9 15 12 — 54
Paradise 17 8 8 19 — 51
Wall (36-3) — Kennedi Graves 15, Katherine Lewis 3, McKenzie Lopez 6, Jewels Johnson 22, Kaylee Covert 4, Brynlee Graves 4.
Paradise (33-4) — Jayci Barnes 14, Hartley Barnes 13, Allie McCormick 9, Brittan Richey 9, Lainey Munden 2, Renlee Longenbaugh 4.
Paul Witwer covers high school sports and Angelo State University sports for The San Angelo Standard-Times. Reach him at sports@gosanangelo.com. Follow him on X @Paul_Witwer, Instagram and TikTok at pwitwer_sast.
This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: Wall girls basketball advances to state championship
