The Lady Deer basketball team remains atop the 22-5A standings with a 59-39 home victory over Dobie. Previously, the Lady Longhorns were the only district team to have beaten Deer Park.

“When we went to Dobie we didn’t take care of business,” said Head Coach Theresa White. “We allowed them to get back into the game.”

Leading Deer Park (6-1) in scoring was Tabitha Hawthorne with 21 points. Hawthorne also had 11 rebounds, four steals and a block.

Allison Hernandez also had good defensive numbers with 12 rebounds, three steals. Hernandez also had five points.

“Our game plan was to stay focused, and push the ball down in transition,” said White. “We tried to make them make mistakes and then we capitalized on them.”

The Lady Deer basketball team raised its record to 5-1 in district with a road victory at Sam Rayburn Tuesday.

Deer Park outscored Rayburn 31-15 in the first half and kept the lead throughout the game. Tabitha Hawthorne scored 17 points and had seven rebounds. Lyndsie Leblanc scored 14 points, had five assists, and made four steals.

Allison Hernandez was one of the top defensive players for the Lady Deer. Hernandez had seven rebounds, made four steals, and scored nine points.

The Lady Deer host Dobie in a rematch on Friday. Dobie gave Deer Park their only loss in district so far this season.

Surrounded by her family and past and present coaches, DPHS pitcher Kristen Davenport (center) signed her letter of intent to continue her softball career at Blinn College. Photo by Bobby Vasquez.

Deer Park's Allison Hernandez drives past the defense in the team's victory over visiting Pasadena Memorial. Click the image for a photo gallery of the action courtesy of our friends over at Deer Park Photos!

The Lady Deer basketball team defeated Pasadena Memorial 52-35. The win keeps the Lady Deer atop the District 22-5A standings witha 4-1 after the first round of district play.

“We played a complete game,” said Head Coach Theresa White, “and we could get points in transition.”

Guard Lyndsie LeBlanc led the Lady Deer in offense with 15 points and two steals. Post Tabitha Hawthorne, who signed with Lee University in Tennessee last week, led the team in defense with eight rebounds and had 13 points as well.

“We wanted to work on our full court defense and we wanted to work at spreading out our offense,” White said.

Deer Park was able to outscore Pasadena Memorial in each quarter despite the large amount of turnovers by the Lady Deer. Deer Park also had more rebounds in each quarter of the game.

Guard Allison Hernandez played a part both with her offense and defense with eleven points and four rebounds.

White said she has seen improvement both on defense and offense during Friday’s win and believes the team is playing at a level to stay in first place in the district.

The next two games will be a huge factor in whether or not the Lady Deer stay in first place. Deer Park faces Rayburn on the road Tuesday and hosts Dobie Friday.

Tabitha Hawthorne (seated) of the Lady Deer basketball team traveled to Tennessee last week to sign with Lee University. Photo provided by Kimberly Hawthorne.

Deer Park’s Tabitha Hawthorne has signed with Lee University in Tennessee to continue her basketball career. Lee U head coach Marty Rowe recently announced the signing of Hawthorne for the 2012-13 women's basketball season. The 6-foot post player is a senior on the Lady Deer basketball team.

“We’re excited to have Tabitha join our program," said Rowe after the signing. "She is a strong and physical player that will need time to develop her skills but we think she has the work ethic to compete and improve.

“Adding Tabitha to this very deep and talented 2012-13 recruiting class is certainly a good feeling and we’ll be excited to see how our five new freshmen mature over their four years at Lee.”

Hawthorne averaged 14 points, 10.2 rebounds and two assists as a junior for Deer Park. "(Mark) Proctor suggested I take a look at Lee and I loved the campus," she said. "When I came for an official visit I met the coaches and loved them. The sophomore girls on the team were very nice. I knew this was where I wanted to be."

After a 56-26 road victory against Pasadena High School Tuesday night the Lady Deer basketball team is 3-1 in district play.

Tabitha Hawthorne led the team in scoring with 19 points. Brianna Turney and Lyndsey LeBlanc were also productive on offense with 12 points each.

Head Coach Theresa White said she was satisfied with the adjustments the team made, especially during the first quarter in which Allison Hernandez got into early foul trouble.

Hernandez usually makes a large defensive impact, averaging double-digit rebounds. With the early foul trouble, other players stepped up defensively, White said. Hernandez was limited to a single rebound but had three steals.

Turney led the team with 13 rebounds; Hawthorne was also a presence with nine rebounds.

In the three closest sets since the first week of district play, Deer Park beat Sam Rayburn High School 25-17 in all three sets.

Despite Rayburn playing great defense, the Lady Deer put up good numbers offensively. Deer Park started slowly in each set, down by as many as four points. Several impressive kills by Bethany Covington, Haley Mueller and Samantha McMahon helped to spur the Lady Deer throughout the match.

Great defense by Jacie Pullig and Mueller was also a key factor to winning several long rallies.

Mueller was once again the go-to hitter and finished with 15 kills and seven digs; many of her digs coming in long rallies.

Deer Park hopes to remain undefeated with an away game against Same Rayburn High School on Oct. 21.
 Erin Shamburger and the Lady Deer raised their district record to 8-0 with a three-set sweep over Pasadena Memorial. Click on the image for more great photos from the action from our friends at Deer Park Photos!