By CLAIRE CRUZ, Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — The Harlingen High Lady Cardinals started their bid for a third straight undefeated District 32-6A season with an 86-24 home victory over Brownsville Rivera on Tuesday.
The Lady Cardinals flexed their deep bench in the contest as 13 girls contributed to the team’s highest-scoring outing of the season. Harlingen High coach Ashley Moncivaiz said her players are confident and comfortable with each other, which “plays a big role for them” as they start the district slate.
Danielle Rodriguez, who scored 11 points and hit two 3-pointers to help Harlingen High get the win, echoed her coach’s beliefs. She said she “felt great” about her performance against the Lady Raiders, and credited the hard work her team puts in for their success.
“We feel like we could go all the way. I feel like we have all the girls to reach our goals and go where we want to go,” Rodriguez said. “It’s just hard work at practices that got us to where we’re at right now. We just condition and we work hard. That’s all it is, working hard.”
Harlingen High was clinical in the way it executed its full-court press and passed the ball on offense. Rodriguez, Avery Hinojosa, Emery Scoggins and Rosa Zapata were among the Lady Cardinals to lead the attack on defense, recording steals and forcing turnovers that were converted into points to build an early cushion. Rodriguez said “hustling and talking to the girls on defense” was the key to the press being so stifling.
Brownsville Rivera’s Caitlin Cardenas hit a 3-pointer in the first quarter to make it an 8-5 game in favor of Harlingen High. But then the Lady Cardinals closed the frame on a 17-0 scoring run and continued to hold the Lady Raiders scoreless for the first three minutes of the second quarter, opening up a 35-6 lead.
Cardenas, point guard Alondra Guzman and post Alondra Garza set the tone for the Lady Raiders with their tenacious play despite the deficit. Garza battled in the paint against Harlingen High’s bigs and held her own, coming up with offensive boards and doing well to keep the ball high for putback attempts. She led Brownsville Rivera offensively with nine points.
“(Guzman) is our senior point guard, so she brings a lot of experience,” Rivera coach Omar Leal said. “She takes leadership, and she really pushes these girls. (Garza) played tough in the bottom, good boxing out and she got some offensive boards back up. She’s come a long way, she’s only a junior this year.”
Guzman and Cardenas put in a valiant effort to run Rivera’s offense, but the quick, aggressive defensive attack from Harlingen High made it difficult for the Lady Raiders to get set up. They forced shots that often fell short of the rim and were pick-pocketed before they could finish drives to the hoop.
Scoggins and Laylah Badiru helped Harlingen High hold a 46-11 lead at halftime. Moncivaiz started utilizing her deep roster during the second half, and the coach was glad to see every girl who stepped on the court push the tempo of the game. Eight different Lady Cardinals scored in a 24-point third quarter, and the defense continued to dominate.
Rodriguez, Kat Vega and Callie Cervantes led Harlingen High to control the fourth quarter and close out the game with the same speed and energy it had when the first whistle blew. Cervantes led all scorers with 12 points, Badiru dropped 11 and Scoggins, Hinojosa and Juli Bryant each contributed eight points.
“It’s always beneficial to play everybody so they get that experience, they get that exposure, so when we put them out there they aren’t going to feel any nerves,” Moncivaiz said. “We can put people in different positions and they’re able to go out and execute, and that’s what builds up a lot of the confidence. A lot of times, teams will drop their level of play (with a big lead), but they weren’t dropping. They were still competing, still fighting. There’s never a dropoff no matter who rotates in. We always try to put that mindset of, ‘Go out there, keep the level of play high and don’t ever drop it, because if you drop it, you’re going to end up creating bad habits.’ And tonight, we did that.”
Cardenas scored five points for the Lady Raiders, and Miranda Garza and Samantha Esquivel played good defense and notched some steals to keep Rivera fighting.
“It’s tough when you open up with the defending district champions. But we’ve seen the best, and it just prepares us for the rest of the season,” Leal said. “We saw a lot of good things and some bad things, but as the game went on we got better and better by the quarter. We saw our flaws, and we’ll just get ready for the next game.”