By ROY HESS
Staff Writer
The Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers have several goals in mind for the basketball season.
One of them is to be the best team in Brownsville ISD.
The Lady Chargers took a step toward that goal Saturday by getting the better of a solid Hanna squad 47-29 during a non-district game at the Brownsville Veterans gym.
Brownsville Veterans improved to 5-8. Hanna slipped to 12-3, so defeating the Lady Golden Eagles was quite an achievement.
“We want to be the premier (girls) basketball program in BISD,” said Lady Chargers coach Valentin Paz, whose squad is the defending District 32-5A champion. “One of the things we talked about was beating this (Hanna) program and every one of the other BISD schools.
“We play all the other five BISD schools, and we knew about Hanna’s record,” Paz added. “Even though our record doesn’t look all that great, we’ve played everyone in the (Valley’s) top 10. Every team we’ve played so far is either going to win its district or be No. 2 in its district, so we’ve played some hard games. Our goal is to do well and prepare ourselves for the task at hand (which is successfully defending our district championship).
“The biggest thing is our girls want to prove they’re one of the elite programs, if not the best, in BISD.”
The Lady Chargers took control from the outset Saturday to go up 5-0 and lead 19-9 by the end of the opening quarter. Brownsville Veterans was ahead 26-13 at halftime. The Lady Chargers took a 35-26 advantage into the final eight minutes before outscoring the Lady Eagles 12-3 during the fourth period for an 18-point victory.
The Lady Chargers just seemed to be the team more in sync Saturday. They helped themselves by hustling for rebounds and getting numerous second-chance shots on the offensive end. They were pretty strong on the defensive end, too.
“Veterans came out and played us very well,” Hanna coach Luis Gonzalez said. “They held (standout scorer) Mia Paz to a low total in points (11), maybe the lowest in her four-year (varsity) career, so they were very well-prepared defensively. I think that was the difference. They played her very aggressively (on defense). Combine that with (the fact) we weren’t hitting our (other) shots, either.
“Veterans was very well-organized on the defensive side today, and I was impressed with their pressure,” Gonzalez added. “Out of the 15 games we’ve played, this was not a bright spot. We’re still busy preparing for District 32-6A, so I feel we’ll be OK.”
During the second half, the closest the Lady Eagles came was five points, 31-26, when Paz scored on a reverse layup with 2:56 left in the third quarter.
The Brownsville Veterans lead increased to nine points, 35-26, by the end of the period, and quickly went up to double digits during the final quarter. The Lady Chargers’ biggest advantage of 20 points, 47-27, came when Bri Buitureira scored from underneath with 1:01 to go.
Paz sank a pair of free throws with 21.7 seconds remaining to account for the final score and 18-point margin of victory for the Lady Chargers.
The two late free throws prevented Paz from finishing with single-digit scoring, which would have been a rare occurrence. She led Hanna with 11 points, while teammates Odalys Gonzalez and Ariana Arceneaux added nine and eight points, respectively.
Brownsville Veterans was led by Destiny Contreras’ 13 points, which included one 3-pointer. Teammates Caitie Esquivel and Lizzie Garza each added 11 points.
The Lady Chargers next play host to Edinburg Vela at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Hanna next plays at McAllen Rowe at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.