By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Hannah Meyers has been an offensive force for Brownsville Veterans Memorial and she stepped up in a crucial game against Donna High.
Meyers finished with 25 points, including nine in the first quarter to get the Lady Chargers off to a fast start and that carried throughout in a 58-37 victory over the Bravettes in a District 32-5A girls basketball game Friday at Brownsville Veterans.
“We had a good practice (Thursday) and I was doing the same thing in practice,” Meyers said of her offensive output. “I knew we had to come out hard to beat them … we had to make a statement.
“We’re growing as a team, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
The senior forward had five rebounds, a pair of assists, three steals and a couple blocks and helped Brownsville Veterans (7-0 in District 32-5A) stay unbeaten in district play as it got out in front in a hurry in the opening quarter and forced Donna High (5-2) to play catch up the rest of the way.
“Hannah has the best post moves, boys or girls, in our school … she has the best footwork,” Brownsville Veterans coach Valentin Paz said. “In the past when we needed a tough basket, we’d go to her in the post. But this year she is playing more freely on the outside. She gets to use more moves to attack … she has adapted her game very well.”
The Lady Chargers jumped out to a 15-0 lead in the first quarter as Meyers had nine points, including back-to-back buckets as they used an aggressive defense — that piled up 21 steals on the night — to stifle the Bravettes’ offense and force turnovers. Nicole Rodriguez hit a pair of layups for Donna High to end the drought, but Lizzie Garza also had back-to-back baskets during the stretch for Brownsville Veterans as it took a 15-4 edge after one.
“The reason we got that win is because of our defense,” Paz said. “In the first quarter, we got that lead because of defense, it created that separation. We’ve been working hard on defending better. We want to score points, but we have to play good defense.”
It was a tough start for the Bravettes.
“We didn’t move the ball at all … we tried to dribble through everything,” Donna High coach Kevin Kromer said. “We didn’t run any of our press break correctly. We looked like we lost our mind for that first quarter.”
The Bravettes regrouped a little and opened the second quarter with a 3-0 run, but a bucket by Meyers made it 17-7. Taty Epperson answered with a put back for Donna High, but Garza had a steal and a finish to push the lead to 21-9. The Bravettes went on a 4-0 run, but Meyers hit a 3-pointer to make it 24-13. Donna High outscored Brownsville Veterans 15-12 in the second, but trailed 27-19 at the break.
The Lady Chargers weren’t finished yet and started the third quarter with a 10-0 run, highlighted by a 3 by Destiny Contreras and a three-point play by Meyers to push the advantage to 37-19. Miranda Sandoval hit a layup to stop the streak, but the Bravettes couldn’t find a rhythm on offense and were outscored 16-5, as the Brownsville Veterans’ lead was 19 after three.
Rodriguez had a put back to get Donna High started in the fourth quarter, but Meyers finished another three-point play to push the lead back to 20 midway through the fourth and the Bravettes and Lady Chargers traded buckets the rest of the way.
Sandoval and Brianna Quesada each finished with six points apiece and combined for seven rebounds for Donna High.
Kromer said the Bravettes played a very uncharacteristic game on Friday night.
“I think it was just nerves,” he said. “We didn’t respond to the big game mentality. We’re disappointed, but we’re learn from it.
“I think we applied too much pressure to ourselves.”
Garza finished with nine points, eight rebounds, three assists and five steals and Contreras added six points, five rebounds and three steals for Brownsville Veterans.
Paz said he was proud of the way his team played defense against Donna High and that it’s crucial to the postseason.
“That’s going to dictate our playoff success,” he said. “The way we’re maturing on defense will take us a long way. We want to win district, but we want to have playoff success.
“We’re going to have to play defense to compete at the next level.”
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.