By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
St. Joseph Academy is 1-1 after two district games but, more importantly, the Lady Bloodhounds are improving.
St. Joseph has been looking to find consistency this season and despite a district loss to San Antonio Antonian on Saturday, the Lady Bloodhounds are showing they are doing some of the little things better game by game.
“They were a lot of things we’ve been wanting to happen that happened (Saturday),” St. Joseph coach Cynthia Martinez said. “There’s a lot of good check marks that we got. I was happy with a lot of things (Saturday).”
Martinez said her team showed the most improvement on rebounding, being aggressive and defense.
“I felt we were more aggressive from a rebounding aspect,” she said. “Instead of just watching, we had people going in and rebounding. We had aggressive people. Diana (Garcia) got more aggressive with her shooting. Our defense was solid (Saturday).”
The Lady Bloodhounds lost to Antonian because of an off day offensively, but the defense held the Lady Apaches below their scoring average.
“They are averaging high 70s and we held them to 63,” Martinez said. “That’s a positive to me.”
Now St. Joseph will focus on continuing to improve during the remainder of the district season.
“I think that now that we’ve gotten this game out of the way, we can start working on some things that can help us the next time around,” Martinez said.
The Lady Bloodhounds travel to Incarnate Word on Saturday for their next district game.
WORKING ON DEFENSE: Brownsville Veterans Memorial has learned something during the past few seasons: Its defense needed to get better.
Brownsville Veterans coach Valentin Paz said the team has been working hard to improve, and it has shown during the previous pair of district games.
The Lady Chargers have fallen behind early only to make a run each time with their defensive prowess. Brownsville Veterans has averaged 15 steals the past two games, enabling them to score in transition and quickly erase those deficits.
“We wanted to try it to prepare for upcoming games,” he said. “If you give them the same look, they are going to know what to do since they’ve seen it already.”
In order to keep winning district games and looking ahead to the postseason, Paz knows his defense will be the factor that determines how far the team can go, especially on the road in its rematch with Harlingen High on Tuesday.
“We have to make stops, we have to win them with defense,” Paz said. “It’s the team that defends the best that’s going to win those games. We’re not playing just to win games, we’re playing to win a championship.”
IN THE HUNT: Hanna dropped back-to-back games to Harlingen High and Brownsville Veterans for the second time in District 32-6A. But the Lady Golden Eagles are right in the middle of the postseason mix.
Harlingen High and Brownsville Veterans remain 1-2 in the standings with Los Fresnos now in third. Harlingen South occupies fourth and Hanna is just a game out along with Rivera. The final four district games will determine which team earns a postseason spot and which one finishes just outside the top four.
Hanna is confident it can bounce back.
“We’re right in the middle of the (district standings),” Hanna coach Luis Gonzalez said. “During the next four games, they’re winnable games. We just have to go out there, compete and win.”
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.