Monitor File Photo/Russell Slaton
Malakoff Lady Tiger basketball player Hillary Dawson (with ball), shown playing Dec. 13 at home against Mineola, has led her team to near the top of state basketball polls for Class 3A.

SUGAR LAND–The Malakoff Lady Tigers, who were 17-1 as of the Dec. 23 poll of Class 3A girls’ basketball by the Houston-area based Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC), register at No. 6 in that classification’s list.
Other teams in TABC’s Dec. 23 Class 3A poll are No. 1 Canadian (who have a 20-0 record as of that date), No. 2 Tuscola Jim Ned (17-1), No. 3 Winnsboro (20-2), No. 4 Gunter (17-3), No. 5 Fairfield (13-3), then Malakoff, then No. 7 Rio Hondo (16-2), No. 8 Idalou (15-4), No. 9 Kountze (11-1), No. 10 Dalhart (14-2), No. 11 Tidehaven (19-1), No. 12 Emory Rains (16-3), No. 13 Corpus Christi West Oso (14-4), No. 14 Little River-Academy (15-2), No. 15 Hooks (17-3), No. 16 Grandview (18-3), No. 17 Peaster (16-3), No. 18 Pottsboro (17-3), No. 19 Hitchcock (13-3), No. 20 Franklin (12-3), No. 21 Comanche (10-3), No. 22 Ponder (14-3), No. 23 Lexington (14-3), No. 24 Jourdanton (19-5) and No. 25 Hondo (13-3).
TABC was founded in April 1975 and was originally sponsored by the Waco Chamber of Commerce, according to the TABC website. In 1980, the association ’s board of directors voted to recruit all basketball coaches in the state and add girls’ coaches to its board, TABC says. In 1982, an agreement was forged with both the Lubbock Avalanche–Journal and The Associated Press to carry a weekly Top-10 Coaches’ Poll in January and February, according to the association’s history. TABC provided the poll and those media distributed it throughout the state. TABC now sends its weekly Top 25 in all UIL basketball classes plus Top 10 rankings for private schools directly to the Dallas office of The Associated Press, which posts it on the AP wire, that history reports.