LOS FRESNOS — Brownsville Veterans Memorial found a way to hold off Los Fresnos.
The Lady Chargers used a better defensive effort during the second half to overcome a first-half deficit and hold off the Lady Falcons 58-50 in a District 32-6A girls basketball game Friday.
“Defense,” Brownsville Veterans coach Valentin Paz said about what was better when comparing the two halves. “I think they only hit one 3-pointer in the second half. In the first half they hit four. We weren’t pressuring the ball. The big difference was defense. Once we got active defensively, we were able to get rebounds and turnovers and scored most of our points in transition.”
Jordan Rudd led all scorers with 21 points, including 14 in the second half, and Hannah Meyers added 16 points, 16 rebounds and four steals for Brownsville Veterans. Rudd also had six rebounds, four assists and four steals in the district win.
“They both played very good,” Paz said. “Hannah had an excellent game, she’s coming around really well.”
From the beginning, observers could tell it wasn’t going to be easy for either team.
Los Fresnos started the first quarter on a 6-0 run, including back-to-back buckets from Cassie Parra, scored had seven points in the quarter. Brownsville Veterans went on its own 6-0 run to tie it up.
Later, Kelsi McDonough had a steal and finish to put the Lady Falcons up 13-8. The Lady Chargers kept pace as Meyers posted six points in the quarter, but Los Fresnos led 17-15 after one.
During the second quarter, Brownsville Veterans received a 3 from Krista Lopez to take the lead, but Lynette Duran answered with a 3 to put Los Fresnos back on top. After the Lady Chargers’ Meyers and Rudd hit back-to-back buckets, Los Fresnos received three 3s from Dori Alcalde — including back-to-back shots from beyond the arc in a three-minute span — to take the lead.
Later, Jessica Fuentes earned a three-point play to give the Lady Falcons a 32-25 lead. Los Fresnos took a 34-29 lead at the break.
The difference was the third quarter. Brownsville Veterans picked up its defensive pressure and used a 10-0 run highlighted by Briana Cortez’s three-point play to take the lead and shift the momentum. The Lady Chargers outscored Los Fresnos 12-3 during the quarter to turn a five-point deficit into a four-point lead.
The Lady Falcons started the fourth quarter with a 4-0 run and tied the game with a jumper by Britney Ruiz before tying the game a few times early on. Brownsville Veterans used an 11-2 spurt that included four straight points from Rudd and a three-point play by Meyers to hold off Los Fresnos down the stretch.
“That’s been our problem all year long, we can’t finish,” Los Fresnos coach Kim Edquist said. “Bottom line, we can’t finish.”
We had girls in foul trouble that were hot (offensively), and couldn’t operate on offense and couldn’t operate on defense after that.
“We stopped doing the things we were doing in the first half.”
Duran scored 12 points and grabbed four rebounds, and Alcalde added nine points on those three 3s for the Lady Falcons.
Los Fresnos faces a dire situation on the road Tuesday at Hanna. The Lady Falcons need a win and Rivera loss at San Benito to earn a playoff spot. The Lady Raiders swept the season series with the Lady Falcons.
“It’s a do or die,” Edquist said. “We just need to play the best game that we’ve played all season.
“If we can put four quarters together we might have an opportunity, but if we don’t …”
Lopez finished with nine points and five rebounds, and Cortez added eight points and three rebounds for the Lady Chargers.
Paz wasn’t surprised by the close game with Los Fresnos. He was just glad to get out with a win.
“Los Fresnos played hard, they’ve been playing everybody tough,” he said. “They were feeding off the crowd in the first half, they were playing with a lot of emotion. It was a must-win for them. They’re playing for their playoff lives.
“Once we took the lead, you could see they weren’t playing with that same intensity.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.