HARLINGEN — With the crowd on edge after the Lady Falcons had blown a 13-point halftime lead, Los Fresnos head coach Kim Edquist told her girls to simply “be patient” as time trickled down.
Harlingen South, however, had other ideas.
With less than 29 seconds remaining on the clock, Kelsi McDonough and Lynette Duran stepped up to the free-throw line and sank four crucial shots helping Los Fresnos escape Harlingen South with a 50-45 victory Tuesday evening at the Lady Hawks gymnasium.
“Defensively, the first half I think we did an outstanding job,” said Los Fresnos head coach Kim Edquist. “Then we came in (in the second half) and wanted to do the same thing that we had done the first half but we couldn’t. That’s just part of the game and that’s the excitement of basketball.
“We did well enough to hang on, they almost came back and took it from us, but we held our own.”
Allie Flores scored 15, Lynette Duran had 14 and McDonough added 10 points for Los Fresnos.
Earlier in the game, the Lady Falcons fell behind 9-2 in the first quarter before going on a 31-11 run to close the first half and go up 33-20. Los Fresnos outscored the Lady Hawks 23-11 in the second quarter.
After the break, South looked like a different team, scoring six quick points to cut the deficit to seven.
And the Lady Hawks didn’t slow down as they outscored the Lady Falcons 16-8 in the third period.
With the lead down to five points, in fourth quarter Edquist told her girls to be patient and avoid turnovers.
However, the Lady Falcons committed two late turnovers, one that helped Harlingen South’s Mikaela Flores score, getting the Lady Hawks to within three.
Flores scored six of her 11 points in the fourth, while teammate Breanna Gonzales was closely defended and held scoreless in the final quarter. Gonzales scored 14 points on the night.
With the win, Los Fresnos moved up to 19-11 overall and 6-4 in District 32-6A with a big game against Harlingen looming this Friday. The win also put the Lady Falcons in the third spot as the district schedule winds down.
“Right now, I tell the girls that every game is a playoff game,” said Edquist. “We dug a hole for ourselves in the first half and we just have to take care of business in the second half.
“We have to beat the teams that we have to beat, like Harlingen South, before we can even start talking about the playoffs.”
Harlingen, meanwhile, dropped to 15-17 overall and 5-5 in district with a game against Brownsville Rivera on Friday.