Seven Lakes has used its length to disrupt every teams its faced all season. The Spartans are unique in having three six-footers and having multiple other players on their roster that provide nearly that much length that gives the Spartans an advantage on both the offensive and defensive end.

Seven Lakes had been to go at smaller teams over the past two months. Dominating with their size and strength, but going into the playoffs they knew that would be tested at some point. That point came on Friday, when the Spartans came up against Jersey Village in the area round of the playoffs. But the Spartans overcame that and didn’t change their gameplan at all, dominating on the boards and suffocating the Falcons defensively on the way to a big 89-57 win.

“We just talked about the game plan and how we have to play to the level we want to play to,” said Seven Lakes head coach Doug Watson. “We turned up the intensity on defense when we needed to and all of them stepped up and made plays during the game. It’s not always going to be a perfect game, but we found a way.”

Seven Lakes was fueled by their experience in the playoffs last year, where they made the playoffs but were unable to get past the area round. They made sure not to let that happen a second year in a row and dominated from early on, building a 25-9 lead in the first quarter and stretching it to 42-25 by the end of the first half.

“We wanted this so badly,” said Seven Lakes sophomore Madison Carlton. “Last year, getting to this point and losing really hurt and it sucked. This year the motivation is just so strong. We knew we couldn’t come out and play badly today. This is just a really exciting team to be a part of.”

Justice and Madison Carlton led the way for Seven Lakes with both scoring 24 points, while Shreya Jategaonkar had 15 and both Caitlyn Quintero and Gracie Hobin had six. Jategaonkar had three threes in the game and it opened things up even more for the Carlton sisters, with Jersey Village having to stretch away from the paint opening things up on the inside.

“People feel like we aren’t a team that hits three pointers, so it opens things up for us so much when we are hitting them and we have players who can,” Carlton said. “It ruins teams whole gameplan for us and it gets everyone on the team excited. I love it so much when we are hitting threes and like that.”

With the win, the Spartans are back in the regional semifinals for the second time in three seasons, and they are ready for the challenge of trying to advance further and get to state.

“The goal all season for this group has been to make it to San Antonio,” Watson said. “All along that’s been what they’ve all wanted and to get to that goal we have to little milestones. I can tell in their eyes that they want this, every day in practice they bring it so we just have to keep on pushing.

Class 6A Region III Area Round

Seven Lakes 89, Jersey Village 57

Points: (SL) Justice Carlton 24, Madison Carlton 24, Shreya Jategaonkar 15, Caitlyn Quintero 6, Gracie Hobin 6, Aisha Eltobgy 3, Victoria Hudspeth 2; (JV) Jayla Lewis 23, Ellie Roden 12, Chloe Barrientes 8, Niya Whiting 3Brooke Maxwell 2, Miyah Patton 2;

Halftime: Seven Lakes 42-25; 3-Pointers: (SL) Jategaonkar 3; (JV) Roden, Whiting; Records: (SL) 29-8; (JV) 21-15;