March 18, 2008

In the early signing period of UTPA women's basketball, the Lady Broncs signed Millwood High School senior Brittany Demery (Oklahoma, OK/Millwood H.S.) who recently guided her team to a 63-60 3A State Championship and squashed any chance of Sequoyah High School collecting their fourth consecutive championship title.

"Words can not describe how I feel, its like heaven right now," said Spears. "I'm just waiting for someone to pinch me; it's just a wonderful feeling winning a state championship."

Both Millwood and Sequoyah enter the 3A State Championship game with an even 27-3 overall record and what was most daunting to Millwood was the senior-packed line-up for the Lady Indians.

The four starting seniors concluded their careers with a 107-7 record with three state titles and runner-up laurels.

Under the direction of head coach Arnelia Spears, the championship title was the Lady Falcons second since 1990 and last finals appearance was in 1993. The victory was Spears' 600th win of her coaching career and was named Little All-City Coach of the Year.

Demery was crowned the Class 3A State Most Valuable Player and was a First Team All-Tournament selection. The soon to be Lady Bronc finished the title game with 13 points and 13 boards in the victory.

"The game against Sequoyah was huge, they set the record for most attendance," said Demery. "It's a very good feeling and just unexplainable on winning the state title."

The newly-signed Lady Bronc was also named Little All-City Player of the Year and collected Little All-City All-Tournament Team accolades.

"Brittany is very deserving of the most valuable player award. "She really stepped up as a leader everyday and played like a division I prospect," added Spears.

In her senior season alone, Demery collected 342 points, to go with 70 steals, 30 assists and seven blocks in 27 games. She finished shooting 52 percent (132-of-254) from the field, 67 percent from behind the arc, and 59 percent from the charity stripe.

Demery qualified for the Oklahoma All-State Team where she will report on May 30th and the game will be scheduled to be played the following day at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, OK.

"We are so happy for Coach Spears and Brittany," said head women's basketball coach DeAnn Craft. "To have a state champion join us next season will be invaluable to our Lady Bronc program. She is a winner, a state champion, an all-state selection, and a leader!"

Demery will join the Lady Broncs basketball program in the upcoming 2008-09 academic campaign.

UTPA Sports Information