TJ GARCIA | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
WESLACO — Briana Peña poured in 22 points on Saturday to lead Weslaco High to a 48-40 win over McAllen Memorial and claim the Mid-Valley Classic tournament title.
The Lady Panthers, defending champions of their own tournament, marched through with six straight wins, using a suffocating defense, solid passing and timely shooting.
Against McAllen Memorial in the title tilt, the Lady Panthers ran out to a big lead behind Peña’s 17 first-half points and hung on, never allowing the Lady Mustangs to tie or take a lead.
Lady Panthers coach Griselda Fino said her team grew up some in the tournament.
“From the first game to obviously the last game, we were put in situations where we had our backs against the wall,” Fino said of some challenges McAllen Memorial posed for them. “We were depending on a freshman (Kirsten Padilla) and a sophomore (Jada Lopez) to come through for us, and that’s good, not just for them, but for us as a team.”
Like the rest of the Lady Panthers in the title match, Padilla and Lopez did not score much, but, when they did, it was when a bucket was needed most. A perfect example was Emily Saenz, who hit two threes in the second half.
Weslaco High jumped out to a 20-11 lead after the first quarter, but could not keep the cushion in the second as Memorial slowly cut the lead point by point until it got within 26-24.
The score at half was 30-26 Lady Panthers, and they expanded that advantage to 38-33 by the end of the third despite several turnovers and missed shots. In the fourth, Weslaco played solid defense, didn’t let Memorial score in the first four minutes, and closed out the game with a few hoops.
And while the Lady Panthers won going away, the Lady Mustangs played with maximum effort and twice reduced 10-point leads down to a single basket.
But Memorial never got over the hump. Still, the Lady Mustangs went 5-1 in the tournament and got feisty title game performances from guards Victoria Izaguirre and Tani Talamantes, who had 11 and 9 points, respectively. Talamantes was disruptive with six steals and Izaguirre had seven rebounds.
Memorial coach Clarisse Arredondo said despite coming up short, she was pleased with her team.
“I don’t think anyone predicted us to come out second today,” Arredondo said. “We’ve been working hard. We’ve had little bumps in the road through the tournament. We were a little fatigued here at the end, but I felt we played hard against Weslaco.”