For the Lady Bulldogs (3-0), Miranda Ramirez had a big outing scoring 14 of her 20 points in the first half helping Lyford jump out to an early lead.
“Miranda is a very versatile player and can play the guard or post spot,” said Lyford head coach Teresa Gutierrez. “When I put her down on the post it’s because she’s quicker than some of the other players and is able to beat players.”
Up 27-9 at the half, the Lady Bulldogs added eight points in the third quarter and continued to dominate the game while controlling the clock, forcing Ramsey to motivate his squad heading into the final period.
“Going into the fourth (quarter) with a 19-point deficit, I told them ‘we’re going to go into this quarter and we’re going to fight on defense and make it respectable,’” said Ramsey. “But throughout the whole game we just missed too many shots and too many easy layups.”
Kelcie Swink took control of the fourth quarter and came alive for the Lady Tarpons (3-5) and scored 10 of her 13 points to help Port Isabel outscore Lyford 20-6. Teammates Alex Martinez helped out with nine points, while Averie Colunga had four.
“We started slow and had three bad quarters, and I told the girls there is no way we could win ball games playing one quarter,” said Ramsey.
“They’re (Lyford) very well coached and you can tell they knew what they were doing, but I just think we had some mental breakdowns and turned the ball over too many times.”
Lyford was consistent throughout the first three quarters outscoring the Lady Tarpons 11-6, 16-3, and 8-5 in the third before giving up 20 in the final period.
“We won three quarters but in the fourth they really got after us,” said Gutierrez. “It’s early in the season and I wanted them to pull it out and run the offense but my kids weren’t doing that.”
“But I’m happy that they came back and gave us that (scare). That way we could work on different things and we don’t get scared when it happens again later on this season.”
Victoria Vela also contributed to the cause with seven points and Kassie Hernandez had six.