By KEVIN NARRO | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
EDINBURG — Junior guard Mikayla Garcia scored a game-high 25 points, hitting three 3-pointers in the first quarter, to lead San Benito to a 56-39 win over Edinburg High on Monday in the Class 6A Bi-district round of the playoffs.
“I wanted our girls to come out and play loose,” San Benito coach Abel Moreno said. “The last two district games really prepared us to play against Edinburg. It was a matter of our girls coming together and evolving, and throughout the game we saw the girls evolve.”
The Lady Greyhounds came out firing from the word go. Garcia’s hot shooting put San Benito in front 17-4 at the end of the first quarter. San Benito capped off the quarter with a 9-0 run.
Garcia scored 19 first-half points, while the Greyhounds led by as many as 11 in the first half and never trailed throughout the game.
“We continued to make shot after shot, and we knew we couldn’t give up the lead,” junior forward Miranda Vallejo said. “Mikayla was on fire tonight. Overall, I thought we executed well and never let them back in the game.”
Vallejo scored 12 points in the win.
Edinburg managed to cut the lead to eight on multiple occasions, but San Benito had an answer for every right hook thrown their way.
San Benito will now await the winner between McAllen High and Laredo United, with the time and place of the next game still to be determined.
The win marks the first playoff win for Moreno in his three years at San Benito.
“When I first got here, that was my goal,” Moreno said. “I instilled it in our girls that we can make a playoff run, and it’s paying off tonight.”