By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Hannah Meyers helped Brownsville Veterans Memorial get off to a quick start against Hanna.
Meyers scored 20 of her game-high 22 points during the first half as the Lady Chargers built a 20-point lead by halftime with tough defense, and that carried them over the Lady Golden Eagles 58-38 in a District 32-6A girls basketball game Tuesday at Hanna.
Meyers tallied 14 points during a sizzling effort in the first quarter and finished with five rebounds, a pair of assists and six steals to lead Brownsville Veterans.
“I think she was very active defensively,” Brownsville Veterans coach Valentin Paz said. “Most of her points were from attacking the basket. They put a big on her so she was taking it off the dribble, but I think most of her points were scored in transition because she was active defensively. she was getting steals off deflections.”
Hanna started the first quarter on a 4-0 run with a bucket by Pamela Ellis and a jumper by Mia Paz. Then Meyers started to get going with a three-point play to pull the Lady Chargers within one. After a pair of free throws put Hanna up, Brownsville Veterans received a bucket from Krista Lopez to take the lead and the Lady Chargers went on a 15-0 run that included nine points from Meyers, including a 3. Carolina Moreno ended the run with a layup for Hanna, but Brownsville Veterans took a 22-8 lead after one.
“(Brownsville Veterans) is fast, they have great speed and we were getting beat on the way back a couple times,” Hanna coach Luis Gonzalez said. “We got rattled in that first half and dug ourselves into a hole, and it took us an entire game to get out of it.”
The Lady Chargers continued their pressure defense during the second quarter. Brownsville Veterans started the quarter on a 12-2 run as a Jordan Rudd 3 pushed the lead to 20 points. Briana Cortez hit a 3 and Meyers scored four points during the stretch, as a bucket from Paz was the only thing Hanna got early on. The Lady Chargers kept getting points in transition and led 37-14 at the break.
“We played good defense in the first half, but I think we gave up too many points in the second half,” Paz said. “That’s what we’re working on, our defense. I think our defense has been pretty good. We made some changes to our press, and that led to some easy buckets.”
Hanna picked it up offensively during the second half, starting with a 4-0 run to begin the third quarter. But Brownsville Veterans held strong as Cortez had five points with the aid of one 3 during the quarter, and the rest of the team kept scoring off Hanna’s offensive miscues.
The teams traded baskets during the fourth quarter, but Hanna didn’t make up much ground. Paz and Ellis combined for 15 points during the second half, but it wasn’t enough to cut into the deficit at halftime.
Besides Meyers, the Lady Chargers had three other scorers in double figures, Rudd collected 10 points, nine rebounds, five assists and four steals, Cortez had 11 points and Lopez finished with 12 points, four rebounds and four steals.
Hanna tried to refocus at halftime, but it was too late.
“Whatever happened that first half to forget about it, regroup and play harder,” Gonzalez said he told his team at halftime. “The girls played better the second half. They battled, but hats off to (Brownsville) Veterans, they’re a great team and can shoot the ball well.”
Ellis accounted for 12 points and nine rebounds, and Paz added 11 points and four rebounds for the Lady Eagles.
Paz again was pleased with his team’s defensive effort.
“This win was about defense, how the defense worked,” he said. “If we don’t stop people, we can’t win games.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.