Permian knew it came into its game Saturday afternoon against Andrews shorthanded.

Using only eight players, the Lady Panthers had to fend off a resilient Lady Mustangs squad on its home floor in its final game of its home tournament.

That challenge proved too tough in the end as Permian fell to Andrews 48-40 in the third-place game of the Kristen Corbin Classic at the Andrews Performance Center.

Andrews sophomore post Alivia Mayfield led all scorers with 22 points. Lady Mustangs guard Rae Johnson added 17.
Permian was led by freshman Ashton Garner, who finished the game with 14 points, as well as Klarissa Cruz, who had 12.

“We’ve got to grow mentally and physically,” Permian head coach Angela Braziel-Smith said. “Right now, I feel like we don’t have the mental toughness as we had at the beginning of the season.”

Part of the reason for those setbacks has been the injuries that have plagued the Lady Panthers so far this season. 

Senior guard Allison Kirk is out for the rest of the season with a leg injury. Permian (7-7) was also without Alena Madero and Alexis Contee for Saturday’s game with injuries as well.

That allowed for new combinations of players to see playing time together. That also allowed for some of the role players on the team to see more minutes than they usually do.

“You use tournaments for that, you use tournaments to grow, you use tournaments to work on certain things and see who can handle what and when and make adjustments from there,” Braziel-Smith added.

All roads for the Lady Panthers lead to District 2-6A play in January, where over the course of five weeks and 10 games, anything can happen. After its trio of games at the Kristen Corbin Classic, Braziel-Smith has now seen more variety in what her team can accomplish.

“It’s just matter of getting everybody healthy,” Braziel-Smith said. “We’ll be fine, we’ll take this and learn from it and keep trucking.”

After neither team led by more than six through the first three quarters, Permian’s depth caught up with it as Garner and Cruz entered the final eight minutes with four fouls each.

That allowed Andrews (5-7) to attack in the low post without a lot of pressure from the Lady Panthers. Mayfield, Johnson and Savannah Infante scored all of Andrews’ 22 points in the final frame by driving to the hoop and either drawing a foul, or sinking a shot.

“I think that was a good win for us,” Andrews head coach Annie McKee said. “I felt like we did a lot of good things and we’re starting to put everything together as a team and it shows.

“I think right now we’re a growing program and any win is great for us. We’ve played a tough schedule and us playing that tough preseason schedule is starting to show now.”

A big part of Andrews’ improvements as a team have come from the front court, where the Lady Mustangs have two sophomores and a freshman playing most minutes. McKee lauded the efforts of Mayfield on Saturday.

“She did a great job,” McKee said about Mayfield. “We can see it in her, we’re just waiting for her to be able to do it.”
Permian returns to action Friday when it travels to face Alpine. Then after participating in a tournament in Lubbock and a road game against Lubbock High, the Lady Panthers will return home for the start of district play.

That’s plenty of time for Permian to get healthy and find the necessary chemistry it desires before starting the 10-game District 2-6A slate.
