BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
MISSION — The frigid conditions that made their way into the Valley on Tuesday afternoon seeped into what was billed as matchup between two projected playoff teams from District 30-6A. Cold shooting plagued both sides, but McAllen High emerged victorious 39-31 at La Joya Palmview.
“Every game is important,” McAllen High coach Stephanie Cantu said. “Every team in our district plays hard, but I think this one was more helpful for our motivation. We’ve been up and down. I told the girls, especially my seniors, that these are the last six games you have, so you have to leave it out there.”
One of Cantu’s key seniors is Brianna Coffee, who entered this week as one of the Valley’s top scorers at 14.7 points per game. Coffee led all scorers with 17 points despite going 6 of 18 from the field against Palmview’s zone defense.
“We had to prepare for their zone,” Coffee said. “We set up our offense in order to make good shots available for everybody. We’ve always looked for Celeste (Saenz) inside, because she’s so strong and she’s great at getting and-ones. We worked that defense back and forth to able to get our open shots.”
Saenz, another McHi senior, could not be contained by Palmview on both sides of the court. She finished with nine points and 16 rebounds while holding the Lobos’ 6-foot-1 center Cyndar Magallon to four points before she fouled out halfway through the fourth quarter.
“Coach kept telling me to force her (Cyndar) to go to right,” Saenz said. “She’s a lefty, so my job was to keep her from going left. I was in front of her and made sure she didn’t get the ball at all.”
Saenz also added five steals as a part of her dominant defensive effort.
“When I’m playing volleyball, I learned how to read the pass,” Saenz said. “It’s basically the same thing in basketball.”
“We’ve had some big talks with Celeste,” Cantu said. “Her being our big girl this year, we told her that she had to get after it. We practiced Saturday after playing (McAllen) Rowe on Friday. She could have had 40 points on Friday. Once we told her that, the light bulb went on in her head. ‘Oh my God, she’s right.’
“Celeste is unstoppable right now. She’s determined to get those rebounds, get those putbacks and getting stops defensively. She did a great job.”
The Lobos (18-12, 5-2) struggled to get their top scorers Magallon and Renee Flores going offensively. Magallon and Flores combined to score 19 points on 6 of 20 from the field.
“We didn’t hit some shots that we normally hit,” La Joya Palmview coach Anisa Reyna said. “We were 1 for 9 on 3-pointers. Cyndar didn’t finish at the rim a few times. That’s tough to swallow. They had a good game plan, and we didn’t counter it.”
With the win, the Bulldogs (14-17) jumped over the .500 mark in district play at 4-3. McHi and McAllen Rowe are both 4-3 in district, now tied for third place.
“It’s a great win,” Coffee said. “This win is going to get us prepared for the rest of district play.”