By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
It was a tale of two halves for Brownsville Veterans Memorial and Laredo Alexander.
Unfortunately for the Lady Chargers, they failed to follow up a strong first half and lost to a familiar foe 59-44 in a non-district girls basketball game Friday at Brownsville Veterans.
Laredo Alexander has now defeated Brownsville Veterans three straight times, including twice in the second round of the playoffs the past two seasons.
“That’s been the same thing during the two playoff games, a tale of two halves,” Lady Chargers coach Valentin Paz said. “We played great for one half, but today I think we ran out of gas. But I think they wanted it more.”
Laredo Alexander started the game on a 9-1 run, but Brownsville Veterans fought back with a 6-0 run to pull within a couple points. Later the Lady Chargers took a 13-12 advantage and led 18-17 after the first quarter.
The Lady Bulldogs retook the lead at 22-20 but the Lady Chargers’ Briana Cortez hit a 3-pointer to give them a 23-22 lead, and they took a 24-22 lead into the locker room.
Cortez had seven points and Jordan Rudd had six points during the first half to lead Brownsville Veterans.
“I think we were still on the bus, not to take anything away from Brownsville (Veterans),” Laredo Alexander coach Gilberto Cardenas said. “They did a great job of executing, I think we got caught up in the moment. We shot the ball a lot more than we’re supposed to instead of going to the rim and taking it strong.
“Brownsville Veterans did a good job taking care of business and (in the first half). We turned it up in the second half and we did what we do. Basketball is a game of runs, and they made theirs and we made ours.”
The Lady Chargers started the second half strong, but the Lady Bulldogs caught up and took a 32-30 lead as a part of a 13-0 run that gave Laredo Alexander a 40-30 lead with about four minutes left in the third quarter. Led by Dannia Gonzalez, who had 13 points in the third, the Lady Bulldogs took a 44-35 advantage into the fourth quarter.
“(Gonzalez) is on of our bigger players,” Cardenas said. “She can do those kind of things, we have several kids that can. Dominique Campos did that in the first half. There is always someone who picks up the slack, and we spread the ball around a lot (Friday).”
Gonzalez finished with a game-high 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Campos had 18 points, including 11 in the first half for the Lady Bulldogs.
During the fourth, Laredo Alexander took a double-digit lead early, but Brownsville Veterans got within nine points on a Rudd 3-pointer.
However, the Lady Bulldogs went on an 11-0 run to push the lead to 20 points. The Lady Chargers ended the game on a 5-0 run, but it wasn’t enough to catch Laredo Alexander.
“In the second half, they still hit their 3s, but we gave up probably 20 points on layups because we didn’t hustle back,” Paz said. “If you can’t play defense, you can’t win a championship. We gave up too many second-chance opportunities in the second half.”
Rudd and Cortez finished with 14 points and six rebounds apiece, Krista Lopez had eight points, six rebounds, and five steals, and Hannah Meyers had 10 rebounds to go along with six points for the Lady Chargers.
But there was a positive for the Lady Chargers. Paz feels like his team competed better against Laredo Alexander than the past two playoff meetings.
“I saw some progression,” he said. “I think we narrowed the gap a bit.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.