By ROY HESS | The Brownsville Herald
BROWNSVILLE — There’s something magical about reaching the 20-win plateau in basketball.
The Hanna Lady Golden Eagles achieved that feat Friday night with a 65-52 non-district victory at St. Joseph Academy.
The Lady Eagles, now 20-5, were led by Mia Paz’s 36 points that included four 3-pointers.
“The difference in tonight’s game was we all played together,” said Paz, a senior guard and four-year starter. “Our chemistry together was unbelievable. When we have that type of chemistry, we win like we did tonight.”
Twenty wins are nice, but there’s an even more important goal ahead for the Lady Eagles, Hanna coach Luis Gonzalez said.
“It’s good that we’re 20-5, but our ultimate goal is to get into the playoffs,” Gonzalez said. “I think tonight we took a big step towards (getting ready for) that because the girls showed improvement and grew a little bit more in this game.
“The girls did a good job of handling pressure (considering St. Joseph pressed us so much),” Gonzalez added. “At times we looked a little sloppy, but overall, I think the girls handled the ball extremely well, we limited our turnovers and we were able to produce some easy points (on fastbreaks).”
SJA led 10-6 after one quarter before the Lady Eagles outscored the Lady Bloodhounds 28-15 during the second period to go ahead 34-25 by halftime. Hanna took a 45-41 advantage into the final period despite having SJA outpoint the visitors 16-11 during the third quarter.
A 20-11 scoring edge by the Lady Eagles in the fourth quarter accounted for Hanna’s 13-point margin of victory.
“I thought my young team did a great job,” SJA coach Nora Zamarripa said. “They just had some segments with mental breakdowns. I was very proud of how hard they made Hanna have to work to beat us. I love how hard we play.”
Other than the final score, the Lady Eagles’ biggest lead of 13 points earlier in the game was 40-27, and it came at the 6:44 mark of the third period as Ari Arceneaux made a medium-range jump shot.
The closest the Lady Bloodhounds came to Hanna’s lead during the second half was two points, 43-41, when SJA’s Maria Del Pozo scored on a fastbreak layup with 53 seconds left in the third quarter.
Paz made her fourth 3-pointer with 11 seconds remaining to make it 65-52.
Besides Paz’s 36 points, teammates Alexis Alvarez and Arceneaux added 15 and nine points, respectively, for Hanna, with Alvarez making four 3-pointers, just like Paz.
The Lady Bloodhounds were led by Del Pozo with 16 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Teammates Lucia Gonzalez and Gisele Sampayo added 13 and 10 points, respectively, with Gonzalez netting three 3-pointers.
Both teams start district play early in January.