BY JON R. LaFOLLETTE | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — The Edinburg Vela girls basketball team won with a different kind of size advantage Tuesday night in a 54-38 win over the Sharyland High Lady Rattlers.
Though Sharyland sported the towering twosome of Maddie Garza, a 5-foot-11 senior and reserve forward Anna Marshall, a 6-foot sophomore, the Lady Rattlers lacked in other areas against their District 31-5A foe.
“Our guards were just small,” Sharyland coach Dale Whitaker said. “We can’t coach them to grow.”
Vela’s guards controlled the tempo of the game throughout the evening while carrying the load offensively. Senior Ariel Rodriguez scored a game-high 24 points, 16 of which came in the first half.
“Our mentality was to come in and defend the district title,” Rodriguez said. “We came in gunning.”
Though Rodriguez’s shooting touch went away in the second half, her teammates filled in. Senior Maranda Washington scored all eight of her points in the final two quarters, and sophomore point guard Jaida Muhammud put up 7 of her nine points.
“In my estimation, (Muhammud) is the best player on (Vela),” Whitaker said. “She’s probably the best player in the Valley. I haven’t seen anyone that quick in the Valley. She’s very good.”
Although the Lady Sabercats (9-7, 1-0 District 31-5A) won by 16 points, Sharyland (12-9, 0-1) was close throughout much of the contest, and led 40-36 entering the final quarter. The Lady Rattlers were getting close to the rim and hitting their open shots when Vela double teamed in the post.
An abysmal fourth period marred by turnovers and poor shooting doomed the Lady Rattlers, who only scored two points in the last eight minutes.
“I told the girls at halftime we needed to deny the post entry,” Vela coach Lottie Zarate said. “Because we knew Sharyland was going to go down low every play.”
The duo of Garza and Marshall, which combined for 15 points in the first half, scored a single basket the rest of the way. Marshall would eventually foul out with 10 points, allowing for Vela’s defense to zero in on Garza, who missed several easy shots at the rim.
“We tried to put our bigs on them and put as much pressure on them as we (could),” Rodriguez said. “We communicated more and we moved around more on defense.”
One of those bigs was freshman forward Bianca Cortez, who was admittedly nervous before tipoff, uneasy at the prospect of guarding a player of Garza’s caliber. Though Cortez only scored three points, she grabbed seven rebounds and held her own against Shsryland’s bigs.
“When we play San Antonio schools, we play (6-foot-3) girls,” Zarate said. “I tell my girls we play schools from the hills because they have girls that are tall like Sharyland.”
Sharyland will host Roma (11-6, 1-0)on Friday. That same day, Sharyland will travel to Mission Veterans (10-8).