BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
HIDALGO — Hidalgo coach Saul Arjona dropped his head and sighed when he thought about the challenges Zapata presented his Pirates on Friday night.
Last season, the Hawks won nine games overall with three of those victories coming in district competition. Zapata entered Friday in a tie for second place in District 32-4A with a 15-win season already in tow.
“We needed to start and finish strong, like we did against Raymondville,” Arjona said. “We’re going to have to go all out because Zapata is one of the best teams I’ve seen in our district. They’re very tough girls. They go up and down and they never stop. They’re no joke.”
Indeed, the Pirates started off strong, taking a 29-point lead into the halftime locker room. Hidalgo (27-4) ran away in the second half, culminating in a 99-35 beat down of Zapata (15-8, 5-2).
“We’re playing very well together,” Arjona said. “We’re distributing the ball a lot. I told the girls, ‘Some of you are going to have points and some of you are going to have steals.’ The beauty of this team is that they are unselfish. They hate it when I take them out. ‘Coach, I want to keep playing,’ but we have to bring the bench in.”
Senior forward Barbie Gutierrez led the Pirate bounty with 29 points. Thirteen of Gutierrez’s points came in the fourth quarter. Junior guard Savannah Sanchez nailed five 3-pointers in the first half on her way to a 24-point night. In all, Hidalgo had five players score in double figures.
As a sophomore last season, forward Melanie Salinas was seldom used on the team bound for the third round. Salinas has stepped in to a starter’s role in 2018-19, but she went scoreless in the first half of Friday’s game.
“I just wasn’t finishing in the first half,” Salinas said. “That made me want to do better in the second half. The girls are always pushing me to finish better. I wanted to do that so I could say, ‘See, I can finish at the basket.’ I’m not only a defensive player. I can play on offense too.”
Salinas jumped out in front of several errant passes from Zapata on defense in the second half, and she also made on her vow to show up in the scorebook by the end of the night. She scored 10 points on Friday.
“She’s a really good player,” Sanchez said of Salinas. “She practices really hard. That’s what I like about her. If she misses a shot, she always goes after the rebound and finishes. And even if she misses the second time, she goes after the ball a third time. She never gives up.”
“Mel didn’t play much last year, but now it’s her and Barbie (Gutierrez) down low,” Arjona said. “We gave her an opportunity for more playing time and she’s doing well for us. She’s our leading rebounder. Every ball is hers. As soon as Barbie gets the ball, the first person down the court is Mel. She needs a little work, but she’s only a junior. Next year, she’s going to be something else.”
The Pirates have completed the first round of District 32-4A play with a perfect 7-0 mark while maintaining their one-game advantage over Rio Hondo, who also won on Friday.