EDINBURG — The first 90 seconds of the third quarter TAPPS Girls’ 2A area round basketball game for Harvest Christian Academy went like this.
Steal. Fast break. Coast-to coast layup, Harvest Christian.
Steal. Give-and-go pass on the fast break. Layup, Harvest Christian.
Steal. Fast Break. Step-back 3-pointer, Harvest Christian.
In fact, much of the night followed that pattern as the Eagles ran, dove and shot their way into the Elite 8 with a dominant 62-32 over the Bryan Eagles on Tuesday at Harvest Christian Academy.
The win gives Harvest Christian a trip to the state quarterfinals either Friday night or Saturday with opponent and location to be determined.
Freshman Ashley Gonzalez scored a game-high 34 points, 4 short of her career-high, and freshman teammate Lexi Garcia added 14.
“It was a rough start for us, but we picked it up in the third quarter,” Gonzalez said. “Coach told us they would have the height on us and a deeper bench, so we just had to play our game.”
Their game focused on creating a ton of disruption with a full-court, man-to-man press the whole game. Clearly rattled, on multiple occasions, different Bryan players looked toward their bench in frustration and simply put their arms out, as if to ask what they should do.
Harvest Christian never trailed, jumping out to a 7-0 lead and Bryan did not get closer than 4, during the first quarter. At the end of the period, Harvest Christian led by 10 and upped it to 15 at 28-13 going into the break.
But it was the beginning of the third quarter that closed the book on the visiting Eagles as Garcia, the team’s point guard, and shooting guard Hayley Vasquez tallied steal after steal. They regularly stepped in front of passes or tipped the ball away from unsuspecting dribblers, and the duo ended the night with 13 steals and caused sheer havoc defensively all over the court.
“As the point guard, Coach wants me to push the ball,” Garcia said. “He wants us to be aggressive-minded all the time. Defensively, I like to keep my hands in front of them (opponents) so they are not able to do much with the ball.”
Harvest Christian improved to 21-2. The small school has beaten bigger teams such as La Villa, Roma and Mercedes, among other this, year and have their eyes set on three more wins, which would mean a state title.
“We needed that third quarter,” Harvest Christian head coach Jaime Gonzalez said. “That really helped get us going. When we get those easy buckets and transition baskets, get the momentum, everything else falls in place. Our guards get us a lot of points off turnovers.
“It’s been pretty much what we do and stay the course. We saw something today and it looked like they got a bit rattled and it (full-court man-to-man pressure) worked for us, so we’ll milk it as much as we can and have to.
“In TAPPS, you have to win five to win it all. We’ve got two down.”