By STEFAN MODRICH, Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — Freshman Morgan Peralez had 10 first-half points and 19 total to lead Weslaco High to a road victory in its playoff opener in the bi-district round, 54-43 against Harlingen South on Tuesday.
Against a South squad known for its effective outside shooting, Weslaco High coach Griselda Fino took a more old-school approach, running the floor and finding open looks in the paint, exploiting Peralez’s height advantage as a matchup in their favor against the smaller Lady Hawks.
“Our strategy was to run,” Fino said. “We can definitely do that, and turn around and play some defense. We knew we were going to be outmatched going against — they’re pretty much all guards — with our big (Peralez) in there defensively.”
The Lady Panthers led 12-5 at the end of the first quarter, and also limited South to five points during the decisive third quarter.
Allyah Guevara hit a 3 for the Lady Hawks to cut the deficit to 16-10 with 6:12 to go in the second quarter, and a steal off of an inbounds pass by South’s Bianca Gonzalez led to a Laura Ramirez layup.
During the Lady Hawks’ next possession, Karla Reyes (11 points) connected from downtown to trim the Weslaco High lead to one with 4:53 to go, prompting a Lady Panthers timeout.
On the ensuing possession, Amber Lopez (nine points) capped the South scoring run with a trey from the top of the key to give the Lady Hawks their first lead of the night, 18-16 with four minutes to play in the first half.
Laura Ramirez finished with eight points for Harlingen South.
Weslaco High responded with back-to-back buckets and went up 20-18 with 2:56 to go.
Julia Celis’ perfect trip to the line for South evened the game at 20 with 2:06 remaining, and Lopez was good again from three-point range to put the Lady Hawks up 23-22 with one minute to play in the period.
Layups by Jazmin Saenz (nine points) and Haley Villalpando — the latter bucket was of the coast-to-coast variety following a steal — during the final 23 seconds of the second quarter gave Weslaco High a 26-23 edge at the end of the first half.
Kirsten Padilla had seven points for Weslaco High, all of them coming in the second half to help
Her team begin to take control of the game.
The Lady Panthers opened an 11-point lead with one minute to go in the period and led 39-28 at the end of the third quarter. Peralez was responsible for seven of her team’s 13 points in the quarter.
“She started coming along halfway through our season,” Fino said. “She moved along really fast. She has a huge impact on our team. Believe it or not, she’s still learning. … My goodness, she’s tremendous. I think she’s helped us along the stretch, these last few ballgames she’s really, really come through for us.”
Saenz made a layup while drawing a hard foul in the first 10 seconds of the fourth quarter and knocked down the free throw to give Weslaco High its largest lead of the night at 42-28.
The veteran came through with several key assists and steals during the second half to widen the margin down the stretch.
“The thing about (Saenz) is nobody really looks at her and says, ‘We have to stop her,’” Fino said. “That’s the beauty of her, she’s so unselfish and she’s such a team player. She’s one of my captains for that reason. … If we ask her to guard the other team’s best player, Jazmin does that. If we ask her to guard a post (player), she will do that. If I tell her, ‘All you have to do for us is get 10 boards tonight and we’re gonna win the game,’ that’s what she’ll do. And I love her for that. I’m so proud of the fact she had a big game tonight.”
Celis made a short jumper out of a timeout with just less than three minutes remaining to cut the deficit to eight, but the Lady Hawks were reduced to sending the Lady Panthers to the free throw line, where the visitors put the game out of reach with less than one minute to go.
“Harlingen South is a great team,” Fino said. “They’re a senior ballclub, (Reyes) has been around for a long time, and my hat’s off to all of them because they really fought for everything tonight. They really showed that they wanted to win.”
In the area round, the Lady Panthers are set to face Laredo Nixon, which defeated McAllen Memorial 42-38 on Tuesday.