By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Weslaco East gave Rivera all it could handle, but it was worth it in the end.
The Lady Raiders earned their first district win of the season, but needed some clutch shots to pull away after the Lady Wildcats rallied to tie the game in the final quarter during the 50-38 victory in a District 32-6A girls basketball game Tuesday at Rivera.
Rivera (1-11 in District 32-6A) was in control through three quarters, but it suddenly found itself tied at 32 after Weslaco East (1-11) used a 9-0 run to start the fourth quarter. Janie Martinez got it started with a bucket and Janette Morales added a three-point play. But the Lady Raiders regrouped and outscored the Lady Wildcats 18-6 the rest of the way that included a stretch of three straight 3-pointers by Mayra Martinez, Kourtney Shears and Roxana Rodriguez. Rodriguez added a three-point play a little later to help seal the win.
“For the girls, it’s a big relief,” Rivera coach Willie Brown said. “We’ve been looking forward to this for a long, long time. We felt it was going to come some time this year. We’ve battled the flu, injuries … it’s been one thing after another.”
“I’m proud of them for hanging in there and doing what they needed to do.”
Jacqueline Montes led the way for Rivera with 18 points, including 16 in the first half and added four rebounds and three steals.
“We just worked hard and played as a team, we kept pushing hard and didn’t give up,” Montes said of the fourth quarter turn around. “Coach told us to calm down and we’ve got this … so we pushed hard to get the lead back and we did.”
The teams went back-and-forth in the opening quarter until Martinez hit back-to-back 3s for the Lady Raiders and a 12-6 lead. Morales hit a bucket to get within four, but Martinez finished with eight points in the quarter and Montes had the other six points as Rivera took a 14-8 lead after one.
After a layup by Morales to start the second quarter, the Lady Raiders went on a 7-0 run fueled by a three-point play and a bucket by Montes for a 21-10 edge. After a bucket by Kathryn Cadriel got Weslaco East within nine, Martinez had a layup and Montes had another three-point play to get the lead to 14. Montes totaled 10 points in the quarter as Rivera lead by 13 at the break.
“Mayra was in foul trouble, but she was huge for us,” Brown said. “Jacqueline was huge with points and rebounds and Kourtney came back from injury and was huge too in crucial situations.”
Martinez finished with 15 points, including three 3-pointers, five rebounds and two steals and Shears added 10 points, five rebounds and five steals for the Lady Raiders.
The Lady Wildcats outscored the Lady Raiders 8-4 in the third quarter as Morales had five points, including a three-point play to shift the momentum before making a run at the start of the fourth.
“We stopped scoring,” Weslaco East coach Chris Kromer said after his team tied the game early in the final quarter. “We have fight and discipline … my team works hard. The energy in practice doesn’t match the results (in games) … and that’s the hardest thing to swallow.”
Morales led Weslaco East with 21 points, including 13 after halftime, and added eight rebounds and a steal. Rionna Garcia finished with seven points, four rebounds and a pair of steals for the Lady Wildcats.
It’s been a tough season for Weslaco East, but the future could be brighter.
“This team needs to win badly,” Kromer said. “I don’t know, if I knew that, I would do that, but all I know to do is what I always done … work hard, stay positive and pray. There is no quit on this team. We’re just young and we have to keep positive because their best years are coming.”
Brown said he had to settle his team down, but trust them to finish in the fourth quarter.
“I think in the third quarter we were trying so hard to add on to the lead that we got careless with the ball and got in a rush,” he said. “We had to have faith and just let them go play. They made the right decisions, took the right shots and that was huge.
“It’s a learning process and hopefully this will spring board this junior ball club and have more to look forward to.”
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.