FREDDY GONZALEZ | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — An electric atmosphere filled the air Friday night at the Harlingen High gymnasium as the Valley’s top-ranked Lady Cardinals and No. 4 ranked Brownsville Veterans Lady Chargers met up to determine the District 32-6A leader heading into the second half of the season.
Marissa Gasca had a game-high 20 points as she led the Lady Cardinals to a thrilling 52-45 victory over the Lady Chargers.
“I think we did a great job, because I believe in my team,” said Lady Cards head coach Ashley Moncivaiz. “With one of our starters injured (Kayla Perez) we were still able to move the ball and we were still able to move the offense and still do the things that we want to do.”
Down 3-0 the Lady Cardinals responded quickly behind a pair of buckets from Sami Quilantan and Gasca to give Harlingen the lead.
The first quarter was a back-and-forth contest as the lead switched hands four times within the first period alone and at the end of the exchange Harlingen found itself in front 11-7.
With the score tied 11-11 in the second, junior Addison Dickey came back into the game (after picking up two early fouls in the first) and immediately made an impact scoring off a rebound and then forced a turnover that teammate Gasca was able to covert to put Harlingen ahead 25-16.
“She is so good and agile that she knows how to slide her feet and get steals,” said Moncivaiz of Dickey. “When she goes in there, she does what she does and gets those steals and scores easy buckets.”
Harlingen’s suffocating defense held the Lady Chargers’ offense to only eight points in the second period, allowing the Lady Cardinals to outscore their opponent 14-8 going into the half.
The Lady Chargers struck fast to start the third period after a barrage of points cut the lead to two behind shots from Briana Cortez, Maria Rios and Jordan Rudd. However Brownsville finished the third down 38-30.
Cortez finished the game with 13 points and teammate Hannah Meyers added 16.
In the fourth, Cortez brought the game to within four with a shot from distance with 1:05 left in the game, unfortunately Gasca put away two critical shots from the free-throw line to put the game out of reach.