By ROY HESS
Staff Writer
LA FERIA — Jazmine Flores sees positive things ahead for her basketball team after the Mercedes Lady Tigers won the 45th annual Tommie Wiseman Tournament.
The Lady Tigers captured the Wiseman championship by defeating PSJA High 37-30 in Saturday’s final at La Feria’s main gym.
“I believe my team has a very good chance to win District (32-5A),” said Flores, a senior point guard and four-year starter for the Lady Tigers who was named the tournament MVP. “Some people are doubting us, but the way we’re playing now, we’re only going to get better. Just don’t count us out.”
Mercedes improved to 11-6 on the season. PSJA High slipped to 16-5.
Teammates joining Flores on the all-tournament team were Mallory Noriega and Reena De La Torre. From PSJA High, the all-tournament selections were Kaylah Hernandez and Brianna De Luna.
It was the second time this season for Flores to be named a tournament MVP.
“I wouldn’t want to single myself out as the most valuable player,” Flores said. “I feel that everyone did her part, and that helped us go undefeated in this tournament. It’s a great feeling to be MVP, but I feel that it was a team effort.
“We hustled, and even though we made some mistakes, we corrected ourselves, and we pushed and never gave up,” Flores added. “Even though our shots weren’t there sometimes, we kept rebounding. I think our rebounding helped us a lot.”
The Lady Tigers trailed 9-4 at the end of the first quarter, but they rallied to outscore the Lady Bears during each of the next three periods. Mercedes was up 16-13 at halftime after outpointing PSJA High 12-4 during the second quarter.
The Lady Tigers outscored PSJA High 10-9 during the third quarter to lead 26-22 going into the final period. Mercedes outpointed PSJA High 11-8 during the final eight minutes to win by a seven-point margin.
Seven points at the end marked Mercedes’ biggest lead, although the Lady Tigers were ahead by six points seven different times previously.
Lady Tigers coach Santiago Rivas said even though his team’s offense wasn’t at its best, Mercedes’ defensive play was a big key to the victory.
“Defense (was the difference),” Rivas said. “We were flying around (on defense), and we were playing well. We always do that. It was going to be a defensive battle.
“We used our whole bench, so it was a team effort by the girls,” Rivas added. “They all did a great job.”
The Mercedes coach said Saturday’s tournament championship gives the team a boost going into 32-5A action later this month.
“This (victory) helps us out for district,” he said. “We’ve got some momentum going right now. Hopefully we continue rolling and we’re ready when district starts (Dec. 11).
“We had some good competition in this tournament,” Rivas added. “Every game was hard-fought, and things worked out for us. We’re getting better, and that’s what is important.”
The Lady Tigers won despite a fourth-quarter “phantom point” that was taken away and then restored.
The Lady Tigers entered the final quarter ahead 26-22. Even though no free throws were shot or 3-pointers made by Mercedes during the first two minutes or so of the fourth period, only a pair of baskets counting two points each, the officials stopped the game, huddled with the scorekeeper, and changed Mercedes’ lead of 30-26 on the scoreboard to 29-26. Later, with 2:00 left, the game was halted again and the “phantom point” was added back into the score for a 35-30 Mercedes advantage.
Fortunately, the mixup didn’t affect the outcome.
It was a balanced scoring effort by the Lady Tigers, who were led by seven points each from De La Torre and Sellie Gonzalez. Noriega and McAyla Garza each added six points, and Flores had four.
PSJA High was led by 14 points from Ashley Pecina and 10 from Darlana Galvan.
Host La Feria bowed out of Saturday’s third-place game because its football team had a third-round playoff game at the same time in Corpus Christi. PSJA North, which won the Wiseman Tournament last year, was declared the third-place finisher.
Earlier Saturday, Rio Grande City defeated Jubilee Brownsville 45-29 for the consolation championship, and Brownsville Rivera beat Brownsville Pace 38-37 in the fifth-place game.
Other players named all-tournament were Lexi Arce of Pace, Jacqueline Montes of Rivera, Mariana Espinoza of Jubilee, Roxy Morales of Rio Grande City, Yolanda Hernandez of La Joya Juarez-Lincoln, Kelsy Trevino of Roma, Angela Lucero of Valley View, Sabrina Gonzalez of Port Isabel, Jasmine Loredo of Edinburg Economedes, Selene Garza of Zapata, Catie Rodriguez of PSJA North, and Karina Diaz and Kayla Lowe of La Feria.