By CLAIRE CRUZ, Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — The Harlingen High Lady Cardinals dominated their game against Brownsville St. Joseph from start to finish Saturday in a 76-38 rout.
Harlingen High was relentless with its full-court press and suffocating defense, resulting in the Lady Bloodhounds not scoring a point until there was only 1:29 left in the first quarter. The Lady Cardinals went up 27-0 and scored a whopping 33 points during the opening frame.
“We went to the weight room and had a good talk, because the last game we had we should’ve started stronger,” Harlingen High’s Avery Hinojosa said. “So, this game we got our momentum together. The first group started off really good, and the second group just kept the momentum and it kept going like that.”
The game marks the first loss of the season for St. Joseph, and Lady Bloodhounds coach Robert Moreno said it was a good learning experience. Harlingen High controlled the tempo of the game, which was at full throttle from the first whistle, and its speed was something St. Joseph hadn’t yet faced.
Despite playing behind a large deficit, the Lady Bloodhounds didn’t go down easy. Lucia Gonzalez, Narda Serna and Regina Tovar led an admirable effort that helped St. Joseph close each half stronger than it started.
“We had a very slow first quarter. I think if we had limited our mistakes in that first quarter, it’s a different outcome,” Moreno said. “But we did struggle in that first quarter and just couldn’t find it. That’s probably the best team here in the Valley, and we love to schedule someone like that. The speed that they play in, we should see a lot of that in our district, so it was a great experience for us.”
Juli Bryant showcased her post moves to drop seven points during the first quarter, but was temporarily sidelined after tweaking her ankle in the second. Hinojosa, Emery Scoggins and Rosa Zapata spearheaded the press that prevented St. Joseph from running any kind of offense in the first quarter.
The Lady Bloodhounds battled during the second quarter. Lucia Gonzalez and Alejandra Gonzalez raced through the defense and drove hard to the basket to get to the free-throw line often. The duo, along with Natalia Montemayor and Andrea Jasso, were a combined 6-for-13 from the charity stripe to contribute to St. Joseph’s 11-point quarter. Tovar added two points from the field and Alejandra Gonzalez hit a 3-pointer.
Scoggins, Danielle Rodriguez and Alexus Coto each made shots from behind the arc to maintain Harlingen High’s comfortable lead at halftime. Callie Cervantes and Hinojosa came out of the locker room strong to once again overwhelm the Lady Bloodhounds during the third quarter. The Lady Cardinals only allowed four points in the third to increase their lead to 61-19.
St. Joseph played its best basketball during the final quarter as the Lady Cardinals continued to substitute heavily. Serna recorded a steal and showed her ball-handling skills to cash it in for a layup and fire up her team. She scored a team-best five points, and Lucia Gonzalez, Tovar and Montemayor each added four in the 19-point fourth quarter. Tovar (10 points) and Lucia Gonzalez (eight points) were the top Lady Bloodhounds scorers.
“(Lucia) never stopped believing that we could come back and win this game. That’s one thing that we need to get from all 15 girls, that mentality. She just never stops playing,” Moreno said.
Hinojosa paced Harlingen High with 13 points, and Scoggins added 12 with two 3-pointers. The Lady Cardinals had 13 different players score in the game, and five girls hit from behind the arc in a true, total team effort.
“Everybody was doing their job, rotating and communicating, which is a big key to it,” Hinojosa said. “We want to get a big lead so we can let the others come off the bench and get a chance to score and everything. We had one girl (Alyssa Aleman) score four straight points coming off the bench, and she was excited and so were we. Everyone was good.”