By Kevin Askeland
MaxPreps.com
Featuring two of the top players in the state of Texas, the Cy-Fair High School girls basketball team looks to improve on last year's finish by at least one game.
The Bobcats lost in overtime to Rockwall in the Texas 5A state finals last year. The loss was the only defeat of the season for Cy-Fair which had won 38 straight games heading into the championship game.
Cy-Fair won't match last year's record, considering that it has already lost two games this season. The Bobcats are off to a 5-2 start, but Cy-Fair can be forgiven for the early-season mis-steps. The school's volleyball team reached the state semifinals, which meant the Ogwumike sisters, Nneka and Chiney, were not available for Cy-Fair's first few games of the season. The sisters, both of whom stand 6-foot-2, are among the state's top players with Nneka signing a letter of intent with Stanford during the early signing period in November.
Nneka Ogwumike was the 2007 District 17-5A basketball MVP (volleyball, too), as selected by the Houston Chronicle. She averaged 19.6 points and 11.2 rebounds per game as a junior and had 22.2 points and 11 rebounds per contest her sophomore year. Last year she was the Gatorade State Player of the Year in Texas and was second team All-America by Paradise Magazine. The Bobcats are 75-2 in the two years the elder Ogwumike has been on the varsity team.
Meanwhile Chiney Ogwumike, a sophomore, was on the District 17-5A first team as a freshman and was also named as the newcomer of the year after averaging 11 points and 8 rebounds per game.
However the talented sisters are not the only weapons for coach Ann Roubique. Cy-Fair lost just one starter from last year's team and return lettermen Mansa El, Nicole Morris, Rhian Rogan, Megan Majewski, Kristen Alexander, Harriott Lakind and Megan Daniel. El, a 5-8 point guard, is a two-time first team all-district selection and has verbally committed to University of North Texas. Morris, a 5-4 guard, is a returning starter who averaged just over 5 points per game.
The Bobcats enter the season ranked No. 1 in Texas and ranked as high as No. 3 in the country in nearly every poll, behind Long Beach Poly (Calif.) and Notre Dame Academy of Middleburg, Va. Roubique knows that another strong run at a state championship will be needed in order for Cy-Fair to maintain that lofty ranking.
"I can't predict what is going to happen this year. Last year was fun. It was great. I wouldn't trade it," Roubique told the Houston Chronicle. "At the same time, I hope we get that chance again. It is all in front of us. We will see how the script plays out."
