This article originally appeared at https://fanucchipressbox.blogspot.com/2021/01/rori-harmon-kyndall-hunter-have-secured.html?m=1 by Dave Fanucchi
We are just about halfway through the 2020-21 High School Basketball season, and both the boys and girls teams are rounding into form. Coaches are fine-tuning their lineups and strategies, while continuing to build their offenses and train for a playoff run. But Cypress Creek Girls Varsity Coach Jennifer Alexander is already three steps ahead of every other team her squad plays. All she needs to do is have her senior guards Rori Harmon and Kyndall Hunter, and their three senior starting teammates step out onto the court, and winning is all but a done deal.
In my over 12 years of personal experience covering high school athletics in Cy-Fair ISD either as the Sports Editor for Houston Community Newspapers or as a Play-by-Play announcer for Texan Live & TSRN, it has been an extremely rare occurrence when we’ve known the outcome of district games before they happen – when the athletes on one team are so much far and away better than everyone else, that they have zero chance of losing. But that is the situation we are currently witnessing with the Cy Creek Girls Varsity Basketball Program.
Last week, Texan Live asked me to call the Lady Cougars home game on the broadcast as they took on 17-6A rival Jersey Village. Cy Creek entered the game with a 18-0 record and as the #1 ranked team in the state, while the Falcons were 15-0 and ranked #7. Under Covid-19 protocols, they gym was as full as allowed, and the coaches made it their Senior Night.
The game was never close. Harmon and Hunter controlled the tempo, pushed the ball up the court at a pace that no team in 17-6A can keep up with, and the Cougars dashed out to a 25-6 lead, cruising to a 92-31 win. Yes, you read that right. Cy Creek won the game by 61 points, against the 7th ranked team in the State. Hunter scored 28 points, Harmon had 10 and post player Taylor Jackson added 16. Every player listed on their roster scored points.
This team only has one goal this year – WIN the 6A State Championship. Each game is one step closer to getting them back to San Antonio, for what would be the third time in their four high school years. As freshmen, Hunter & Harmon shocked the Houston-area and led the Cougars to their first ever Regional title and appearance at State. They went 34-5 overall but lost in the semifinals to Plano. They had another incredible year as sophomores but stumbled in the Regional title game when Harmon was playing on a banged-up ankle.
As juniors, they reeled off 40 straight wins, but with Harmon unavailable for the state title game, Duncanville handed them their only defeat of the season. Just that success alone – reaching the State 6A Basketball Championships twice – makes them the top two girls hoopsters in the history of the school. And you could argue they are already the two most successful team sport athletes in Cy Creek history, although it’s difficult to name one ahead of the other. This is all before we see what they are able to accomplish in the next 2 months, to finish this season.
The victory over Jersey Village pushed Harmon & Hunter’s overall win-loss record at Cy Creek to an astonishing 129-12. When you begin to discuss the all-time greats in girls basketball within Cy-Fair ISD, it begins with Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike of Cy-Fair HS, and the two State Championships they delivered in 2008 & 2010. Hunter and Harmon are not at that level, but they are the next closest thing.
Erica Ogwumike & Nancy Mulkey led Cy Woods to a state title in 2015, but that team was a one-year wonder, and those two players’ individual varsity careers and numbers don’t compare. Didi Richards led Cy Ranch to State in 2017, and Cy Falls made it there in 2012, but both teams lost in the semifinals. That’s pretty much all there is history-wise within the district, that you can put in the discussion bucket with what the Cougars have done and are continuing to do.
“I think Rori and Kyndall transcend the gender conversation, and you can just call them the best backcourt and two of the best players in the district – boys or girls,” said Houston Chronicle High School Sports Reporter Adam Coleman. “They are being referred to as the top ranked high school girls basketball backcourt duo in the nation right now. That’s the level of talent you are seeing.” How often are two guards from the same school afforded a scholarship opportunity to play at the next level, both to a major Division 1 program like the University of Texas? That is rare indeed.
Cypress Creek has had a handful of graduates become pro athletes – football players Cameron Fleming and Sam Adams come to mind. Baseball player Paul Janish played a couple of seasons in the major leagues. Girls wrestler Amanda McAleavey just recently won back-to-back individual State titles in her weight class. Many others have earned collegiate scholarships to compete. But no other Cougars have ever accomplished four years of sustained success and placed their teams in the State Championship spotlight, more than Harmon and Hunter have.
I don’t know how many points or assists Rori and Kyndall have each accumulated to this point, but it is their collective talent that is most impressive. If you’ve not seen them play in person, or you are a parent of a Cy Creek student, do yourself a favor and make it over to the gym one night to watch them perform, before the season ends. You don’t want to miss school history right in front of your eyes.
