By ROY HESS
Staff Writer
LYFORD — The Thanksgiving break is going to be a little more enjoyable for the Port Isabel Lady Tarpons after Monday’s 56-36 non-district basketball win at Lyford.
Actually, the outcome was fairly predictable.
The Lady Tarpons (8-3) are an energetic team on the rise with some experienced players. Their goal is to make the playoffs after finishing 13-16 overall last season and winding up fifth in District 32-4A. The Lady Bulldogs (4-7) are rebuilding after graduating all 12 players from their District 32-3A squad of one year ago.
“Any time you can get a win on the road I think it’s a good thing for the program and good for the girls,” second-year Lady Tarpons coach Hannah Burleson said. “Going into the Thanksgiving break and having all the girls play, and having all but one of them in the book (as scoring), was very good. We have one who is coming off an injury.
“We really worked our offense well,” Burleson added. “We were more patient with our offense than we have been lately, so it was good. Just having the constant effort, being patient with the ball and controlling the tempo throughout the game, I thought the girls did a pretty good job in those areas.”
Port Isabel was up 17-8 after the first quarter and led 33-18 at the half. The Lady Tarpons took a 48-23 advantage into the final period before being outscored 13-8 by the home team to account for the 20-point difference in the final score.
“We need to take better care of the ball, and we need to shoot when we have the opportunity,” Lady Bulldogs coach Teresa Gutierrez said. “We’re still a little tentative. We’re scared to miss, so a lot of the players won’t pull the trigger. When they’re open, I tell them to just shoot it, and we haven’t been doing that.
“This year we have no returning players, and sometimes it shows,” Gutierrez added. “I graduated all 12 seniors (on the team) last year, and we’re going through some injuries right now. We’re just trying to see who works better with who team-wise (on the court), so this year is definitely a learning experience for all of them. There are four freshmen on the varsity. It’s going to be a learning season for sure.”
Sabrina Gonzalez, Port Isabel’s sophomore point guard, gave the Lady Tarpons their biggest lead of the first half of 19 points, 31-12, when she made a 3-pointer from the right side with 3:05 to go before intermission. It soon became 33-18 at the break after the Lady Tarpons outscored the Lady Bulldogs 16-10 during the second period.
It was more of the same during the third quarter. Port Isabel outpointed Lyford 15-5 during the third period for a 48-23 edge going into the final eight minutes.
The Lady Tarpons’ largest lead of 27 points, 48-21, came with 50 seconds remaining during the third quarter when Janessa Espinoza made a jump shot from the right side.
The Lady Bulldogs outscored the visitors 13-8 during the final period, but it was not enough.
Sabrina Garza led the way for the Lady Tarpons with 16 points. Gonzalez and Whitney Zaloski added 15 and 10 points, respectively, with Gonzalez netting three 3-pointers and Zaloski making two.
For Lyford, Alyssa Garcia, Sam Delgado and Destiny Gonzalez scored 10, nine and eight points, respectively.
Burleson sees plenty of positives for her team as it moves forward with the season.
“Last year we won 13 games, so to be 11 games into the season and already have eight wins is pretty good for us,” the Lady Tarpons coach said. “I’m proud of the girls. They’re working hard. We’ve got to keep this thing going all the way through district.
“These girls work hard every play,” she added. “I’m pretty intense, and I get on them pretty hard. They take it and they look to improve every game. They remain positive and most of the time are giving 110 percent effort. We want to be in the hunt for the playoffs.”
Both teams are open the rest of the week and next play at home at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 27. Los Fresnos is at Port Isabel and Brownsville IDEA Frontier is at Lyford.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.