MaxPreps 2012-13 girls Team of the Year: Duncanville basketball

There have been 18 Texas girls basketball teams who finished their University Interscholastic League seasons undefeated. The 2012-13 Duncanville (Texas) team was the first to win more than 40 games, registering a 42-0 mark.

The Pantherettes finished No. 2 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 National Girls Basketball Rankings and became the first 5A Texas team to win back-to-back titles in more than a decade.

Few thought MaxPreps Girls Coach of the Year Cathy Self-Morgan could actually get her team to perform at the level of the 2011-12 team that went 40-1 and won by the largest margin in a Class 5A title game — 38 points. Instead, the Pantherettes were even better while increasing their winning streak to 70 games, the longest in the nation.

They won playoff games by 30, 37, 36, 21, 19, 24 and 23 points in the championship, a 59-36 blowout over Steele behind 20 points by Kiara Perry, named tournament MVP, and 13 from Ariel Atkins.

For the season, they almost doubled their opponents' score with a cumulative score of 2,698 to 1,366, or, by an average score of 64.2-32.5. They finished No. 1 in the MaxPreps National Computer Rankings. They'll head into the 2013-14 season riding that 70-game win streak.

For it all, they were selected the MaxPreps 2012-13 girls Team of the Year.

"They're a great group of kids," said Self-Morgan after the championship win over Steele. "The city is proud of them, the school is proud of them and there's a lot to be proud of."

Their most redeeming quality, largely, was their sense of purpose and focus.

The 2011-12 team finished 40-1 and produced the most lopsided Class 5A title game (69-31) in state tournament history. How in the world could they match that?

Self-Morgan created a team mantra from the start: "Still hungry, but still humble."

The Pantherettes, who lost two starters from the previous year, stayed true for the entire 42 games behind the play of SMU-signee Perry (14.5 points per game) and Atkins, a junior, who led the team at 16.1. Both are 5-foot-11 forwards.
With so much attention paid to them, 6-2 senior Antoina Robinson, an Arkansas-Little Rock signee, dominated the post.

The backcourt was led by 5-6 Tasia Foman (11 ppg) and Tamara Washington, a 5-8 senior.

Though Duncanville showed plenty of firepower, where it truly excelled was on the defensive end, allowing less than 20 points three times and less than 30 a remarkable 16 times. With such defense, the Pantherettes were rarely challenged. Only three games were decided by single digits. And they beat the Australian national team 85-30.

The win streak was never on its mind, which led to Self-Morgan's sixth state championship evenly divided between Duncanville and Westlake (Austin, Texas). It was Duncanville's eighth state title. 

"The kids just see the next game,'' Self-Morgan said. "They are focused on keeping that zero on the right side of our record. It doesn't matter how big the number is on the left.''