KEVIN LU | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
McALLEN — The Roma High girls basketball team escaped Donna High in a thrilling 43-42 Class 5A bi-district playoff win Tuesday at McAllen High School.
Roma senior Kassandra Rocha scored six of her team’s final seven points. Her game-winning free throw came with less than a minute left and it was the 20th tie or lead change in a back-and-forth affair.
Roma High (21-12) led 21-20 at halftime, but couldn’t score a field goal for the first five minutes, 30 seconds of the third quarter. By that time, Donna High (22-11, 13-1) had taken a 31-25 lead, the biggest margin of the game.
The Lady Gladiators survived with their free-throw shooting, making more of them (17) than field goals (13).
“Just maintain the course,” Roma High coach Romeo Rios said when asked what he told his team during the third quarter Donna run. “We never changed from running up and down the court, our pressing, our defense.”
Roma High ran a full-court pressure defense most of the game. The Bravettes came out of halftime with their own full-court press, and both teams slowed their offenses in the fourth quarter.
“We wanted to see if we could get them a little bit tired as the game wore on,” Rios said, adding that Tuesday’s win was the biggest in his career. “We were all winded. It could’ve gone either way, we were just fortunate.”
The Bravettes hit a dry spell offensively in fourth quarter. They didn’t get their first field goal until midway through and only scored pair of baskets in the final period.
Donna High had a chance at the win on the final possession.
The Lady Gladiators inbounded from under the Donna High basket with the 43-42 lead. Donna High senior Marina Martinez leaped to tip the inbounds pass to herself, before driving the ball to the other end. She lost it in the key, and the buzzer sounded as both teams scrambled for the loose ball.
The first half was just as much of a battle as the second half. The Bravettes’ five 3-pointers kept them in the game, despite 13 turnovers forced by Roma High’s fullcourt press. The Lady Gladiators decidedly won the rebounding battle, but made only six of 29 field goal attempts, including many tries from inside the paint.
Donna High sophomore Laurynn Williams had a game-high 18 points. Roma High senior Luz Gonzalez had a team-high 17 points, and Rocha added 16.