Against the Edcouch-Elsa Lady Yellowjackets on Saturday afternoon, the Lady Cards outshot, outrebounded, outhustled and simply outperformed the competition en route to an easy 67-34 win.
The victory improved the Lady Red Birds to an impressive 13-1 record. Their only loss of the season has come against San Antonio Clark during the McAllen Border Bash Tournament on Nov. 21.
Senior starters Addison Dickey, Sami Quilantan and Marissa Gasca led the way for Harlingen with 17, 10 and nine points, respectively, in essentially just one half of play as Lady Cards head coach Ashley Moncivaiz rested the starters in both the second and fourth quarters.
As usual, the Lady Cards’ defense was relentless from the get-go as it forced numerous turnovers and held the Lady ’Jackets to just two field goals in the first half
In the first period, Jamie Herrera single-handedly kept E-E in the game by draining two three-pointers that got the Lady ’Jackets to within one point at 8-7. That was as close as they would ever get, however, as the Lady Cards closed out the quarter on a 14-0 run to take a 24-7 lead.
With the 17-point advantage, Moncivaiz sat the starters in the second quarter. And while the bench wasn’t as sharp offensively – scoring only 10 points – the defense continued to harass E-E and held the Lady ’Jackets to a mere five points.
“We still need work with them, but it was nice to get them some playing time today and they did well,” Moncivaiz said of her bench players.
In the third period, the Lady Cards’ starters returned and quickly broke any spirit the Lady ’Jackets may have still had by outscoring them 22-9 to finish the frame up by 37 points at 58-21. Dickey led the way with 11 points.
With the Lady Cardinals’ starters on the bench again in the final period, E-E managed to outscore Harlingen 13-6 as Herrera scored 11 to finish with 21 points. But it was way too little way too late as Harlingen wrapped things up with the 33-point win.
The Lady Cards will now have a chance to rest as they will not play again until Dec. 8 when they travel to Brownsville to take on St. Joseph Academy.
With things going so well for the team right now, Gasca admitted that it is somewhat hard for the girls to remain humble.
“It is sort of but, then again, not really,” she said. “We’re just taking it day by day and working hard at every practice.”