By STEFAN MODRICH | Staff Writer
RIO HONDO — The Rio Hondo Lady Bobcats had what was perhaps the best defensive start a coach could ask for during the first quarter of a hotly contested District 32-4A battle in their home game against Hidalgo on Tuesday night.
Rio Hondo held the Lady Pirates (19-4, 9-0 32-4A) scoreless from the field and yielded just three points from the free-throw line in the period but was overcome by Hidalgo’s hot outside shooting in a 41-37 loss.
Also Tuesday, Hidalgo’s boys team beat Rio Hondo 52-38.
In the girls game, Soleil Garza made all three of those free throws and led the way with 10 points for the visitors, and Elisa De Le Pena also had 10 for Hidalgo, including a pair of 3-pointers during the third and fourth quarters to help turn the tide in the Lady Pirates’ favor.
Freshman Eliza Rodriguez scored six of her 11 points during the first quarter for the Lady Bobcats (24-6, 8-2 32-4A), and Natalie Martinez tallied six of her 10 points in the fourth as Rio Hondo’s late comeback bid fell short.
“(Rodriguez) is a competitor,” Rio Hondo coach Victor Sauceda said. “That’s what we try to preach (to the team), try and coach them to be aggressive, and obviously she’s a really athletic freshman. She does a good job of bringing it every night.”
Martinez’s steal led to a fast break, and she assisted Rodriguez on a transition layup to spark a 9-1 run to open the game.
A corner 3 by Amanda Gomez made it 14-3 at the 7-minute mark of the second quarter.
Hidalgo then went on a 5-0 run that was snapped by a Martinez basket with 2:58 remaining in the period.
Hidalgo rallied to cut the deficit to four with 2:07 left in the first half and proceeded to trim the lead to three when Hidalgo’s Soleil Garza made one of two technical free throws.
Ayisha Andrews knocked down a wide open triple from the top of the key during the final minute of the half to give the Lady Bobcats a 19-14 advantage at the break.
Hidalgo took its first lead six minutes into the third quarter and outscored Rio Hondo 13-6 in the decisive third quarter to take a 27-25 edge into the fourth.
Sauceda said his team had trouble adjusting to playing man-to-man from their traditional zone defense, and that led to the Lady Bobcats allowing some easy baskets in transition.
“Hidalgo’s got a great team,” Sauceda said. “They’ve got a lot of shooters, and they let it fly from the outside. That was their game plan coming in. Sometimes you get caught in transition and you leave some girls open, and obviously they hit (their open looks).”
De La Pena had five points during the fourth quarter, including a trey from the elbow to give Hidalgo a nine-point lead with 2:38 to play.
Rio Hondo cut the lead to five with 1:20 to go, and Rodriguez and Martinez did their best to get the Lady Bobcats back within striking distance.
Rodriguez blocked a shot from the significantly taller Melanie Salinas to lead to a Martinez layup, and Rodriguez drained a 3-ball to cut the deficit to 39-37 with 10 seconds to go.
The Hidalgo defense stifled Rio Hondo’s last possession with two and a half seconds remaining, and the Lady Bobcats were forced to foul De La Pena, who iced the game with two free throws to give the visitors a four-point cushion with less than one second left on the clock.
“In my conversation afterward, (I told them) about learning from our losses,” Sauceda said. “(The girls) competed, and that’s what I wanted them to do. I’m proud of (the girls) regardless (of the result).”
In the boys game, Kyle Perales and Gus Sanchez each scored 18 points as Hidalgo eased to a road victory.
The Pirates (18-9, 9-0 32-4A) never trailed, leading the Bobcats (17-10, 6-1 32-4A) by a score of 9-7 at the end of the first quarter.
“If we want to be a district champion, the district title runs through Hidalgo,” Rio Hondo coach Michael Alvarez said. “It has been like that for a few years. All that means for us is we need to get back to the drawing board and learn from it, because we still have the whole second half of this district (schedule) to go. We’ll regroup, we’ll watch film and we’ll get better because of this game.”
Hidalgo outscored Rio Hondo 20-10 in the second quarter to take a 29-17 lead into the locker room at halftime. Sanchez made all four of his 3-point field goals in the first half, four of which came during the crucial second quarter.
The Pirates led by 14 at the end of the third quarter, a deficit that ended up being the final margin of defeat for the Bobcats.
Daniel Garcia was the leading scorer for Rio Hondo. Garcia scored six of his 11 points in the midst of the Bobcats’ 18-point third quarter. John Ayala knocked down a pair of 3s as part of the scoring barrage.
Perales did the brunt of his scoring damage during the second half, with eight of his 13 points in the half coming in the third quarter.
After combining for a game-high 38 points during the third, both teams totaled just nine points in the fourth quarter.
Jaboz Villarreal had had nine points for Rio Hondo.
“Some of the shots (Villarreal) normally makes were not falling (tonight),” Alvarez said. “Like I told him, that happens, it happens to the best of them, so (I told him) not to lose confidence in himself. Like I told (the team), ‘Thank God it’s not a one-game or two-game season. There’s a 14-game season. … Now we have a much bigger goal. We’ve got to fight for a playoff spot.”