By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
RAYMONDVILLE — It took one quarter for Brownsville Veterans Memorial to realize it had its hands full against a hot-shooting Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial squad.
The Lady Chargers fell behind early due to the Lady Eagles’ barrage of shots beyond the arc and never recovered in a 73-36 loss in a Class 5A girls basketball area game Friday.
“They had 30 points in that first quarter … that gave them the gap,” Brownsville Veterans coach Valentin Paz said. “They did what they do. I told (the team) we were there (on defense), you can’t help that they hit the shots … we were there. We knew they were going to shoot 3’s. They just hit their shots … they did their job.”
As Brownsville Veterans Memorial (28-14) struggled to get going in the opening quarter, Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial (31-5) seemed like it couldn’t miss. As the Lady Chargers tried to find a rhythm, the Lady Eagles found their groove with six 3-pointers, half of those from Victoria Arismendi, who had 11 points to start the game. Arismendi hit a 3 to open the first and hit two more as Corpus Christi Veterans went on an 8-1 run to build a 14-3 lead. Hannah Meyers tried to get Brownsville Veterans going, but it couldn’t match the offensive output and trailed 30-8 after one.
Even Corpus Christi Veterans coach Roy De La Pena was surprised by the scoring outburst.
“I want to lie and say we do it all the time … this is the first time (this season) we came out like that,” he said. “We usually have a real bad first quarter, but we were due for a good quarter … I guess it happened (Friday). (Brownsville Veterans) is a great team, they press, they go 1-2-2, we just caught fire.
“That was six 3’s quick and 30 points, that was pretty good.”
Lizzie Garza hit a 3 in the beginning of the second quarter and Meyers had a bucket, but Arismendi and Sammi Perez answered with layups as the teams went back-and-forth. Then Julie Alvarez hit a 3, but the Lady Chargers still trailed by 20. Marina Gatica answered with a 3 to give the Lady Eagles a 42-16 lead before Garza had a three-point play, but Brownsville Veterans trailed by 24 at the break.
“We were out of sync defensively so there was no offensive flow to do what we want to,” Paz said. “We were getting the shots we wanted, the drives we wanted but we weren’t finishing.
“Defensively, we didn’t turn them over … we gave up too many backside layups because we didn’t have the rotation.”
Gatica opened the third quarter with a 3 and followed with a jumper to fuel a 7-0 run as Corpus Christi Veterans took a 51-20 lead. Meyers hit a 3-pointer to stop the run and had 7 of the team’s 10 points in the quarter, but the Lady Eagles pushed the lead to 31 by the end of the third.
Corpus Christi Veterans finally slowed down in the fourth quarter, but still outscored the Lady Chargers to seal the area round win.
Arismendi led the way for the Lady Eagles with 15 points, five rebounds and a steal. Gatica added 13 points as the pair hit 6 of the team’s 8 shots from beyond the arc.
“We hadn’t shot well (lately) as a team … it was just a matter of time,” De La Pena said. “We stayed positive and knew it was going to happen (eventually). I think we’re peaking at the right time. Hopefully it can work out next week.”
Meyers had a game-high 16 points, including 12 after the break, four rebounds and three steals and Garza added nine points, six rebounds and a pair of steals for Brownsville Veterans.
The Lady Chargers had a goal to capture another bi-district title, which they did and now have five straight. But another loss in the area round makes it bittersweet. But Paz and his team will continue to work to get over that proverbial hump.
“Nobody expected us to be here after what we graduated last year,” he said. “It hurts that we couldn’t take Hannah to the next round. Overall, it’s another stepping-stone. Hannah took the torch from the previous leaders and now with seven sophomores coming back, somebody has to take that torch and step up and do the right things.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.