BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
An accidental bump to the forehead kept McAllen High senior guard Brianna Coffee away from the basketball court for several days.
“The girls were in the weight room stretching, and Brianna was on the floor stretching her hamstrings,” McAllen High coach Stephanie Cantu said. “Another teammate was standing in front of her, but she didn’t know Coffee was behind her. So when she picked up her leg, she bumped Coff in the forehead.”
The bump gave Coffee, McHi’s top scorer, a concussion, which caused her to miss last week’s House of Pain tournament held at McAllen Memorial.
The concussion protocol ended in time for McHi’s district game against La Joya High on Tuesday.
“I was actually kind of nervous to see how she was going to come out against La Joya,” Cantu said. “This happened before Christmas break, then we had Christmas break, and then she missed the entire (House of Pain) tournament.”
The extra rest appeared to aid Coffee versus the Coyotes, as she scored a season-high 32 points, including seven 3-pointers in 31 minutes. The Bulldogs (12-15) won 73-34 while improving to 2-1 in district play.
Coffee’s 32 points raised her points per game average from 14.3 to 15.1.
“That kid is just a player, and she’ll step up any time we need her to step up,” Cantu said. “She was a little cold in the beginning, but then she got hot. She could have broken our scoring record the way she was shooting.”