By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Los Fresnos got off to a quick start on the shoulders of Ari Gallardo and never looked back against Hanna.
Gallardo helped her team earn a double-digit lead in the first quarter and totaled 30 points, including 16 after the break as the Lady Falcons ran away from the Lady Golden Eagles 63-36 in a District 32-6A girls basketball game Tuesday afternoon at Hanna.
“When she gets going, she gets going … she’s a big part of our offense,” Los Fresnos Rebecca Valdez coach said of Gallardo. “She’s been working really hard on her defense. I gave her the green light … whenever you’re open and you want to shot the ball, go for it.”
Gallardo hit four 3-pointers along the way and added four rebounds and six steals to pace the Lady Falcons (2-2 in District 32-6A). With the loss, the Lady Eagles fell to 1-3 in district play.
As Los Fresnos got off to a strong start, it was just the opposite for Hanna.
The Lady Falcons started the opening quarter on an 8-0 run as Britney Ruiz and Jovanna Adame each had four points apiece. The Lady Eagles’ Jackie De la Rosa ended the streak with a free throw, but the team continued to struggle from the field. Gallardo followed with a bucket and a 3-pointer to push the lead to 13-1 before Los Fresnos finished the first period with a 15-1 edge.
“We just didn’t come out ready to play,” Hanna coach Luis Gonzalez said. “The shots were there. The game of basketball is very simple. We went very cold shooting-percentage wise and even though it shouldn’t, that carried over to our defense … we didn’t have a very good start.”
Gallardo started the second quarter with 3 before Ariana Arceneaux hit the first Lady Eagles bucket of the game. She hit back-to-back buckets to get them within 20-5, but Gallardo continued to hit buckets and a layup in transition made it 26-8 late in the second. Mia Paz finally hit her first shot on a runner late in the second, but Los Fresnos led 28-10 at the break.
The Lady Falcons continued to add to their lead in the third quarter. Gallardo had a layup and Adame hit a 3 as part of a 9-0 run to start the second half and push it to 37-10. Later a 3 by Gallardo made it 44-14, but Paz followed up with a 3 of her own. But Gallardo was too strong and finished with 14 points in the quarter as Los Fresnos led 49-17 after three.
“I think it was a combination of (offense and defense),” Valdez coach said of the way her team started. “That House of Pain tournament (last weekend) helped us get our legs underneath us. The effort was just there … it was going to come down to effort and I feel like we started off strongly. We had a couple of good wins (in the tournament) and got some great momentum … so it was huge coming in.”
Hanna found its shot early in the fourth quarter with a layup by De la Rosa and a 3 by Karen Garza and outscored the Lady Falcons 19-14 in the final quarter. But it wasn’t enough after its slow start and Los Fresnos cruised to the district victory.
The Lady Eagles were coming off a big 75-27 non-district win over Edinburg Economedes as Paz scored 50 on the strength of 12 3-pointers. Hanna wasn’t able to duplicate that hot-shooting effort and will have to regroup quickly with another district game in two days.
Paz finished with a team-high 13 points and three rebounds. Arceneaux added 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Lady Eagles.
“Like I told the girls, we’re a lot better team than that, we didn’t play very well (Tuesday),” Gonzalez said. “We just have to play better, no ands, ifs or buts, we have to play better than our performance than that. We’re going to forget about it and show up to practice and work and be ready to play. We’ll bounce back and be ready to play on Friday.”
Adame finished with 11 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals, Dom Clemons had four points and seven rebounds and Ruiz added four points and three steals for the Lady Falcons.
“It’s hard to win during the holidays so I think this is a big win, especially heading into our game with Harlingen High,” Valdez said. “Hopefully this will keep our momentum going.”
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.