DONNA — With seconds ticking away and the game on the line, IDEA Donna point guard Abby Cortez stood out of bounds and clapped the ball between her two hands sending her four teammates scattering.
Cortez fired an inbounds pass to teammate Daphne Ramirez, who cut left at the top of the wing. Ramirez weaved her way toward the rim, side-stepping a defender as she switched the ball from right hand to left before flicking a running floater toward the basket.
Ramirezz’s floater clanked off the rim and circled in with 24 seconds to go, sealing an improbable second-half comeback and cementing a last-second 50-48 win for the Titans over the IDEA North Mission Warriors in their opening round Texas Charter School Academic and Athletic League playoff game Tuesday night at IDEA Donna High School.
“The girls fought back. That’s why we’ve scheduled tough teams throughout the whole year, and it paid off here. This is what the girls have fought for all year. They knew it was going to be a tough game, and I told them, ‘In the playoffs, everyone is 0-0. Our records don’t mean anything in the playoffs, it’s about who wants it more,’” IDEA Donna head coach Andrew Sierra said. “When it came down to it, we fought back in the second half. In the first half we kind of struggled passing and they hit us in the mouth first, but we made adjustments in the second half and executed well.”
Ramirez’s last-second salvo was preceded by a wild run just to put the Titans within reach of the lead.
IDEA Donna trailed North Mission by as many as 12 at the break and struggled to generate consistent offense after coughing the ball up a number of times on entry passes down into the low post. But the Titans did just enough to keep it close before seizing a 10-0 third quarter run to trim the deficit to as few as two points before entering the fourth down just 31-28.
“That third quarter was a huge run. Those second half adjustments really fired up the girls and they knew if we executed well, we would come out victorious,” Sierra said. “I told them, ‘It’s 0-0 in the second half. We’ve got 16 minutes left in the game, now let’s go get it.’”
The two big areas where the Titans took charge of the contest were in transition defense and their work on the glass.
IDEA Donna played a much-improved defensive game in the second half when it switched back and forth between a full-court press and half-court trap that frazzled the IDEA North Mission attack. The Titans wrested away 19 steals from the Warriors, which helped set up plenty of transition buckets that helped fuel their race back into the contest.
IDEA Donna also dominated on the glass by a wide margin. Center Maritzah Welton and power forward Yamilet Limas combined for 26 of the team’s 39 rebounds, nearly outdoing the Warriors (27) by themselves, which helped the Titans in their sprint back toward taking the lead.
“That’s what we live for. I preach defense to these girls every day and that’s something we do well. We kind of struggled on the boards in the beginning,” Sierra said. “I wish we would’ve boxed out a little bit better, but in the second half my big girls, Maritzah and Yamilet, they came out big for us. They got some big boards and put backs for us in the fourth quarter.”
Welton tallied a double-double with team highs in points (17) and rebounds (14) and guard Lydia Torres added 13 points and five steals, but Ramriez shined the brightest down the stretch when the Titans needed the freshman most on a high-stakes stage.
“This was her first varsity game. I told her, ‘I don’t need you to be a superstar, I just need you to be doing what you’ve been doing all year,’” Sierra said. “‘I know it’s your first varsity game, and I know it’s a very big one because it’s a playoff game, but let the nerves go. I just need you to play basketball.’ That’s what she did. She came up big and got those two points to help seal the win for us.”
The Titans (23-8, 10-0) will take on either IDEA Alamo or IDEA McAllen in the TCSAAL South Regional Championship Game at 5 p.m. Saturday at Hidalgo High School.