HARLINGEN — It didn’t take long for the Lady Cardinals to put their stamp on the game Tuesday night against Brownsville Hanna.
The Lady Cards’ converted an early 11-2 lead into a 70-50 victory to go 13-4 overall, 2-0 in District 32-6A.
“I honestly believe we did really good tonight,” said Harlingen head coach Ashley Moncivaiz. “I like the team chemistry and the defense has really taken it to the next level.
“At halftime I was looking at their stats and we had 14 turnovers but we also had 26 steals with our shooting percentage at 59.
I always push defense, defense.”
The Lady Cardinals jumped out to an early lead as Hanna struggled to keep up with the speed and fluidity of Harlingen’s game and quickly fell behind finishing the first period down 24-16.
Things went from bad to worse in the second for the Lady Eagles as the Lady Cards scored 17 unanswered points to start the second.
After outscoring the Lady Eagles 24-16, 17-4, and 18-12, Hanna responded and took the fourth period 18-11, but it was too late.
“You got to keep the girls hungry,” said Moncivaiz. “Whether you’re up by 15 or up by 10 you have to keep telling them what to work on and give them energy.”
Junior Addison Dicky led the way for the Lady Cards, scorings a game-high 19 points.
“I’m very proud of her (Addison Dickey),” said Moncivaiz. “She built her confidence with the offense and she has been working on it and working on it and you can see how she’s made her adjustments.”
“She’s had the defensive aspect but now the offense is coming with her defense.”
Teammate Kayla Perez contributed 12 points, while Marissa Gasca was a threat all night scoring 11 points with nine of them coming from the three- point line.
“It feels great to start 2-0 but we still have room for improvement,” said Moncivaiz. “We still need to work on not letting up and keep finishing. The way we start we have to finish.”
For the Lady Eagles, Dahalia Reyes had a team-high 10 points while teammate Taylor Cano contributed nine.