By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The Harlingen South Lady Hawks came alive in overtime to stay unbeaten in the District 32-6A girls basketball race.
The Lady Hawks, now 3-0 in 32-6A, outscored the Hanna Lady Golden Eagles 16-6 in OT to capture a 67-57 conference win at the Hanna gym on Tuesday.
South trailed 49-45 with two minutes left in regulation and rallied behind the play of Karla Reyes, who went into the fourth quarter with only three points in the contest.
Reyes wound up finishing with a team-high 20 points thanks to some accurate free-throw shooting down the stretch. She made seven of eight free throws in the final 3:23 of regulation and scored on a drive with 5.6 seconds left in the fourth period to make it 51-51 and send the game to OT.
“It was a hard-fought game and I think our girls did a good job of fighting and coming back,” South coach Kelly Garrett said. “We didn’t start very strong and we had some lapses, but overall, they did a good job.”
South quickly went ahead for good in extra time, going up by eight points, 59-51, with less than a minute gone in OT. In the final 36.7 seconds, when Hanna was forced to foul, the Lady Hawks made six of eight free-throw attempts to seal the victory and stay unbeaten in 32-6A.
The final score of 67-57 accounted for South’s biggest lead of 10 points.
Hanna, now 1-2 in district, led 15-13, after the opening quarter, but trailed 26-23 at halftime. The score was tied 34-34 after three quarters and 51-51 after four periods.
The Lady Eagles’ largest lead was nine points, 47-38, came at the 5:03 mark of the fourth period when Mia Paz sank a pair of free throws. But from there, South began its comeback that resulted in the win.
Laura Ramirez added 13 points for South. Both Reyes and Ramirez had a 3-pointer apiece.
Paz finished with a game-high 28 points for Hanna. She hit three 3-pointers. Teammates Sofia Salinas and Jacky De La Rosa added 12 and 11 points, respectively. De La Rosa also had three 3-pointers for Hanna.