MANSFIELD – Once Mansfield Timberview got in a zone Friday night, it couldn't be stopped.

After trailing Amarillo by four points at halftime, Timberview switched its defense from man-to-man to a 2-3 zone in the second half. Timberview forced 14 turnovers and outscored the state's 16th-ranked Class 5A team, 27-12, in the second half en route to a 46-35 win in a semifinal in the Mansfield Rotary Invitational girls basketball tournament.

Blog: High schools

 Friday's tournament action

Boys basketball tournaments

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Whataburger: Dunbar falls short

Wildcat Classic: Arl. Bowie wins

Sunset stranded, forfeits

Fri. results | Sat. schedule

Girls basketball tournaments

DISD: DeSoto in final

Sandra Meadows: Defense propels Frisco

Mansfield Rotary: Timberview, Liberty Chr. advance

Fri. results | Sat. schedule

"We were really struggling to guard their inside game. They have such strong post players," Timberview coach Candi Harvey said. "We just made the decision to go to a 2-3 zone. We still played aggressively with our man-to-man principles, but tried to pack it in."

Timberview (22-1), ranked third in the state in 5A by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, advanced to the tournament's championship game for the first time. Timberview will play Argyle Liberty Christian at 8 p.m. today at Mansfield Legacy High School.

Amarillo (18-4) has five players 5-11 or taller, but Timberview kept 6-4 Camille Redmon on the bench in the second half and went with a lineup featuring no players taller than 5-11. Guards Courtney Conwright, Maegan Conwright, Nicole Terral and Keena Mays – all 5-9 or shorter – combined to score 25 of Timberview's 27 second-half points. Terral finished with a team-high 12 points.

Private power: A private school has never won the Mansfield Rotary Invitational. Argyle Liberty Christian can change that with one more win.

Liberty Christian (23-2) extended its winning streak to 18 games with a 57-50 win over defending Class 3A state champion Canyon in Friday's semifinal.

Whitney Hand, a 6-1 senior forward who has signed with Oklahoma, led Liberty Christian with 26 points. Liberty Christian has won four games in the tournament, beating state-ranked UIL teams Cedar Hill (No. 14 in 5A), Fort Worth Dunbar (No. 6 in 4A), Mansfield Summit (No. 11 in 5A) and Canyon (No. 1 in 3A) by an average of 11 points. Hand scored 25 points in the quarterfinals Friday as Liberty Christian beat defending Mansfield Rotary champion Summit, 59-44.

Scoring record falls: Fort Worth Dunbar senior post player Brooklyn Pope broke the tournament's single-game scoring record with 34 points in a 61-32 victory over Plano in the seventh-place bracket. The 6-2 Pope, who has signed with Rutgers, broke the record of 33 points set by Kennedale's Samantha Mahnesmith last year.

Thrilling finish: Senior point guard Destini Hughes' three-point play with 0.6 seconds remaining lifted Kennedale to a 58-56 victory over Mansfield Legacy in the seventh-place bracket.

The 5-10 Hughes, who has signed with LSU, hit a runner in the lane, was fouled and made the free throw. She finished with 30 points.

Kennedale, the state's third-ranked 3A team, played without Mahnesmith. The SMU signee has been out for three weeks with a knee injury, but coach Vance Hughes said he hopes Mahnesmith can return to the lineup next Friday.

Special contributor Chris Allman contributed to this report