Girls basketball (27-7, 11-3) lost to Cibolo Steele (26-9, 11-3) on Friday night at Seguin, 58-44, dropping the former to the third seed in District 26-6A and setting the stage for a bi-district matchup with District 25-6A runner-up Austin Westlake (28-6, 15-1).

The game started as inauspiciously as possible for the Lady Rangers, whom Steele shut out the for over six minutes to open the game. Stout defense held the Knights to 16 points in the first frame, but an eight-point deficit loomed large, and it was a lead designated home team Steele would never relinquish.

The Lady Rangers never managed to win a quarter, holding Steele to 14 points in each of the final three quarters but never scoring more than 13 themselves.

The Knights were simply too deadly from deep to overcome, especially for a team missing star guard Anika McGarity, who was nursing an ankle injury she sustained in Tuesday’s regular season finale against Steele. She played through it after getting her ankle wrapped at halftime, but caution took precedent last night.

Trinity Garrett (14 points) led the team in scoring, but 11 of those points came in the second half, when it was far too late. In fact, the team’s leading first-half scorer was Jasmine Bolds, who replaced most of McGarity’s minutes and hit two three-pointers, including the icebreaker that ended the first-quarter drought.

Next up for the Lady Rangers is Westlake, who won a lot of games but couldn’t win a coin toss with Austin Lake Travis, costing them their district’s No. 1 seed. Westlake now gets the dubious honor of playing one of Texas’ top teams in the first round despite a 15-1 district record.

The two squads will square off at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Canyon High School. To view the full playoff bracket, click here.