By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
For one half, Hanna stayed right with Harlingen South.
But the Lady Hawks used pressure defense and good free-throw shooting to hold off the Lady Golden Eagles 52-40 in a District 32-6A girls basketball game Tuesday at Hanna.
Dahlia Reyes led the way for Hanna with 11 points, 10 rebounds, six steals and one blocked shot. Reischeel Ocampo finished with nine points — including seven in the first half — and four rebounds for the Lady Eagles.
“We got in foul trouble, and I think that affected our rotation a little,” Hanna coach Luis Gonzalez said. “That hurt us, and we turned the ball over and gave them some easy baskets. We didn’t shoot the ball very well. Our guards didn’t shoot the ball well at all. That along with turnovers really hurt us.”
Reyes hit a pair of free throws to give Hanna the early lead, but Harlingen South received three straight points from Breanna Gonzales to start a 7-0 run and take the lead in the first quarter. Mia Paz hit a 3 and Ocampo had a putback to tie the game at 9. But Gonzales hit a layup to give the Lady Hawks the 11-9 lead after one.
The teams continued to battle back and forth during the second quarter. After Harlingen South took a 15-11 lead, Paz and Sofia Salinas had back-to-back buckets to tie it at 15. Pamela Ellis hit a layup to extend the Hanna lead, but later Harlingen South retook the lead with a 3 by Gonzales. Ocampo tied the game at 23 on a 3, but the Lady Hawks beat the buzzer to take a 25-23 lead at halftime.
During the third quarter, Paz hit a jumper and then a free throw to give Hanna a 28-27 lead. Leeanne Ledesma had a layup to give Harlingen South the lead again, but Ellis tied it once more with a free throw.
The Lady Hawks utilized their defense to frustrate the Lady Eagles and used a late 6-0 run fueled by a three-point play by Ledesma and a bucket by Socorro Salazar to take an eight-point lead by the end of the third.
“We picked up our defense, which helped,” Harlingen South coach Kelly Garrett said. “We started to make some shots and made some free throws, but our defense is what really helped us out. I just think we made more shots in the second half.”
Hanna got within five points on a jumper by Ocampo during the fourth quarter but didn’t get any closer. Salazar eared a three-point play with a couple minutes remaining to push the lead back to eight and Harlingen South hit several free throws down the stretch to seal it, shooting 18 of 30 overall.
“We’ve been trying to work on that. We actually made more (Tuesday) than we have been,” Garrett said. “We were more consistent.”
Paz finished with eight points, Carolina Moreno added five points and a pair of steals, and Salinas pulled down nine rebounds for the Lady Eagles.
“We still had an opportunity in the fourth (quarter), but we couldn’t make those stops at the end,” Gonzalez said. “Offensively, we weren’t creating shots. We were hitting shots, missing some easy ones, so that hurt us as well.”
Salazar, Ledesma and Mikaela Flores each had 12 points to lead the Lady Hawks. Gonzales added 11 points, seven rebounds and three steals for Harlingen South.
The Lady Hawks needed the win to stay in the hunt for a postseason berth.
“It was huge, it was a must-win,” Garrett said. “We told the team no ifs, ands or buts, we have to buckle down and take one game at a time and we had to have this game. We took care of it, now we have to worry about the next game.”
Gonzalez said with two games left, the Lady Eagles have to play better to earn a playoff spot.
“We have to get down to basics and do the things that got us this far: ball movement, play good defense,” he said. “We lost to a good (Harlingen) South team. They played great. On the same token, I don’t think we played very well.
“We let one slide (Tuesday), but I think we have two opportunities to make it right. I believe in the girls, and I think we’ll bounce back.”
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.