FREDDY GONZALEZ | Valley Morning Star
LA FERIA — PSJA North’s Catie Rodriguez scored 10 points and Melly Palacios marked her return to the team by scoring eight points as the defending champion Lady Raiders won their fourth straight Tommie Wiseman Tournament with a narrow 29-20 victory over host La Feria on Saturday afternoon.
PSJA North opened the tournament with an 88-45 victory over Zapata before edging past La Joya Juarez-Lincoln 46-44 in the second round and Rio Hondo 45-28 in the semifinals.
However, the final was a completely different story. After jumping out to a 16-5 lead in the second period, the Lionettes clamped down defensively and made the Lady Raiders work for every point.
“Credit the girls from La Feria because they played really hard, they were very aggressive, they didn’t quit and played to the end,” said PSJA North head coach Randy Bocanegra. “Part of our game plan was to maintain our composure in our attempt to break the press and handle their pressure. We got caught a few times where we got rushed and were in a hurry, but I think for the most part we did a good job of looking for the open player.
“We were able to hit some shots early and create that separation that gave us a cushion because we didn’t score much that second half.”
Trailing 23-14 at the half, the Lionettes slowed the powerful Lady Raiders offense down to a crawl and allowed just two points in the third and four points in the fourth period. The problem with that was La Feria was unable to take advantage and only managed to score one point in the third and five in the fourth.
With an already loaded starting line up, Coach Bocanegra received another major boost when standout Melly Palacios was back in the staring lineup.
“Having Palacios back was big because it put us back into our rhythm and into the chemistry that we had at the beginning of the year,” said Bocanagra. “But not having her gave an opportunity to other girls to get big minutes and play a bit more like Jannely Zuniga.”
Zuniga did not score in the final, however she was named to the all-tournament team along with teammate Alexia Neal. And the accolades did not stop there for the Lady Raiders as star player Catie Rodriguez was named the MVP of the tournament.
“Catie Rodriguez is more like a silent leader because she is not very vocal but she is our quarterback and does great job handling the ball and scoring,” said Bocanegra. “She had a very big game early on scoring 33 points and she kind of cooled off from there but she led our offense and did a great job handling the ball and handling the pressure.”
Despite the loss there were some positive takeaways from the game for the Lionettes. As La Feria head coach Angel Martinez stated after the contest, “Knowing that we are competing with the best and staying with the best should give us some positive motivation heading into district play.”
“I was very proud of the girls’ defensive effort,” added Martinez. “We kept a very very good high scoring PSJA team to just 29 points and that’s something that’s a big win in our book. We knew coming in that they had great shooters and they’re just well coached all around by Coach Bocanegra who doing a great job over there. But just knowing that we kept up with a great team and were within striking distance we’re proud of the outcome.”