MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
LA FERIA — The second day of the Tommie Wiseman tourney was anything but easy for the hosting La Feria Lionettes.
After a down-to-the wire win against Rio Grande City in the morning, the Lionettes finished the day strong with a 47-31 win over the Edinburg Economedes Lady Jaguars and punched their ticket to the Wiseman finals for the second straight year Friday night at La Feria High School.
“Getting to the championship was tough,” said La Feria head coach Angel Martinez. “We beat a tough Rio Grande City ballclub and when Economedes put away PSJA, I knew they were going to be tough to get by.
“We play at 1:30 tomorrow, so hopefully we can have our legs underneath us and represent in the championship.”
La Feria will face the PSJA North Lady Raiders, who defeated Brownsville Rivera 55-32 later in the evening, in a rematch of last year’s Wiseman finals.
The Lady Raiders won that meeting 48-33.
After an 8-1 start for the Lionettes, the fatigue of a long day set in and led to sluggish play in the first half, allowing the Lady Jags to climb back in the game.
“The girls played their hearts against Rio Grande City in a last-second game and then went to school to have a regular school day,” Martinez said. “I thought that it was going to be smooth sailing after our good start, but no way— the girls ran out of gas after an exhausting day”
Economedes launched a 9-0 run to take the lead in the late first quarter, as they forced turnovers and got into the fast break for easy scores.
“That’s our game; we like to get that rebound and push that ball up the court,” said Economedes head coach Mariana Campos.
The run wouldn’t last long for the Lady Jaguars, as they went into the half trailing 18-17. Campos chalked the slowed play to their lack of depth and busy day catching up to them.
“We ran out of gas, we were tired and we got a little sloppy,” she said. “We played an earlier game today and I don’t have a lot of depth. The girls see a lot of minutes and it caught up with us in the second game, specifically in the second half.”
La Feria launched an 11-0 run to start the third quarter that was capped off by a Camryn Lopez three from the right wing, giving La Feria a 29-17 lead.
The Lionettes didn’t slow the rest of the half, as their defense turned up the press on defense and pushed their lead to 16 by the mid fourth quarter.
On the night, La Feria had steady scoring, but it was Sara Alvarado and Annette Ruiz leading the way for the Lionettes.
Alvarado led La Feria in scoring with 12 points, while Ruiz added 10.
For Economedes, Silvia Perez led all scoring with 20.