The Lady Raiders’ three-headed monster comprised of Isabel Palacios, Sarah Serrano and Arianna Medrano combined for 53 points on the evening as PSJA North defeated the Lady Hawks 66-37.
“I thought we did a great job of controlling the tempo and running the floor, and we got in the passing lanes and running lanes like we wanted to,” PSJA North head coach Randy Bocanegra said. “We worked on that for three or four days before the game and came prepared.
“We said we were going to shoot the ball and eventually we were going to make some, and we sure did.”
PSJA North’s big three spearheaded the charge as Palacios scored 24 points, Serrano had 15 and Merano contributed 14 points on the night.
Despite the Lady Hawks jumping out to a 5-2 lead to start the game, the Lady Raiders mounted a 9-3 comeback to end the first quarter up 11-8, with Palacios hitting a wide-open three pointer in the closing moments of the period.
In the second, it was much of the same as PSJA North outscored Harlingen South 12-7 and stretched the lead to 23-15 going into the break.
“You can’t be comfortable because at this point it’s one and done so you have to keep playing and that’s a tough task,” said Bocanegra.
And Bocanegra was correct.
With the new half came a new sense of urgency for the Lady Hawks as Brianna Gonzales quickly hit a three pointer then turned around and created a turnover before laying up a basket to cut PSJA North’s lead down to five at 25-20.
Gonzales led Harlingen South with 17 points including five buckets from beyond the arch.
However, that was the closest the Lady Hawks would get as the Lady Raiders outscored South in the final two quarters by a margin of 43-22.
“We’re going to go back to practice and keep shooting,” said Bocanegra. “We’re going to think positive and build on this one
“We are going to try and have a hard workout tomorrow and then prep because I think we could have done a better job.”
PSJA North will now face the winner between McAllen Rowe and Del Rio, who play tonight.