BY JON R. LAFOLLETTE | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — As Sharyland High’s Anna Marshall barreled down the hardwood during a fast break in the closing minutes of Tuesday’s Class 5A bi-district game at Sharyland High School, she was trailed by Mere Guevara of the Mercedes Lady Tigers, who caught up with Marshall and blocked a would-be layup.
Marshall, unphased, looked to her teammates on the bench, shrugged and smiled. It was the only time the Lady Tigers stopped her all evening.
Marshall, a sophomore, was close to automatic during the Lady Rattlers’ 50-32 win.
The 6-foot-1 post scored a career-high 28 points on 12-of-17 shooting. She also grabbed 8 rebounds and shot 4-of-6 from the foul line.
“It feels great right now,” Marshall said of her performance. “I’m in the clouds.”
Sharyland’s win sets up an area-round game against Flour Bluff at Texas A&M Kingsville on Friday. The starting time will be determined today.
Despite the lopsided victory, the teams played to a draw in the first half with a score of 21.
“It was like we couldn’t get the ball to go into the basket,” Sharyland coach Dale Whitaker said. “Getting the ball down the court in the second half made all the difference.”
After the break, the Lady Rattlers became cherry-pickers. While Mercedes overloaded the paint to fight for offensive rebounds they seldom collected, Marshall and teammate Maddie Garza outran the size of the Lady Tigers to wide-open layups on the other end.
In the second half, Sharyland outscored Mercedes 29-11.
“(Mercedes) did a great job of attacking us on rebounds (in the first half). But I told the girls that if we could just attack the ball and go down the court, we can score,” Whitaker said.
Tuesday’s game marked the return of the Lady Rattlers to the playoffs after missing the postseason for only the second time during Whitaker’s 18-year tenure as head coach a season ago. Not letting history repeat itself was a motivating factor for Garza.
“I told the girls with about five minutes to go that we were already in (Mercedes’) head,” she said while grasping a celebratory piece of the net. “I said that five minutes is a lot of time. We couldn’t let up. I wanted this game, we all wanted this game. We have to go get it.”
Garza scored 13 points and hauled in 8 boards. During the second half, Marshall and Garza accounted for all but one of Sharyland’s points.
With the win, Sharyland sweeps Mercedes on the season 2-0, with the previous victory occurring on Dec. 12 by a score of 38-29. Marshall and Garza did not start together in that game, as Marshall has steadily developed her game as the season progressed.
“During practice, Coach plays us a together a lot more now,” Marshall said. “Some people call us the Twin Towers. We just work well together, and we know that we work well together.”
For Mercedes, the loss ends a season that saw the Lady Tigers split the District 32-5A championship.
“I told the girls to keep their heads up,” Mercedes coach Marisa Gutierrez said. “They accomplished a lot this season, it just didn’t fall our way tonight, especially with as many shots as we took. We weren’t hitting anything.”
The Lady Tigers were led in scoring by Jacklynn Flores with 10 points.