BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
WESLACO — The McAllen Memorial Mustangs got off to a rocky start to their regular season a little more than a week ago.
The Mustangs had a four-point lead going into the fourth quarter against San Benito but allowed the Greyhounds to score 23 in the final frame to lose late. On Tuesday, Harlingen High put Memorial away by 20.
Memorial, however, turned things around this week, winning six of six games in the Mid-Valley Classic. The Mustangs’ most important win came in the Classic’s Platinum Bracket Championship Game, a 53-50 nail-biter over the Edinburg High Bobcats on Saturday at Weslaco East High School.
“We’re still far away from where we want to be as a team,” McAllen Memorial coach Clarisse Arredondo said. “We started off slow last weekend, and I told my kids, ‘You’re not used to playing together yet, and it’s going to take time to gel.’ And we were the underdogs today. Honestly, I don’t think they expected us to beat them. My girls fought until the end, and I’m extremely proud of them.”
The Mustangs (6-2) used a 20-point second quarter to erase an early deficit and take a six-point lead into halftime. Memorial held a seven-point advantage halfway through the fourth quarter, but Edinburg made a late push.
The Bobcats (6-1) tied the game at 50 on a layup by senior guard Mercedes Hernandez with 21 seconds remaining. A reach-in foul by Edinburg senior forward Jayla Santa Maria sent Memorial junior guard Tani Talamantez to the line with 11.1 seconds left. Talamantez made one of two free throws to put the Mustangs up for good.
“We came into this tournament as the underdogs,” Talamantez said. “Our coach told us that we’d have to work hard to prove that we deserve to be in this tournament and I believe that’s what we did.”
Talamantez scored a game-high 20 points and canned four 3-pointers in the title game. After the game, Talamantez was presented with the Most Valuable Player award for the Platinum Bracket.
“The award means a lot to me,” Talamantez said. “Last year, we got second place, but coming into this tournament, we wanted to win it all. The girls and I worked well together to get the win.”
“This is her (Tani’s) team now,” Arredondo said. “She’s taken on a strong leadership role for us, and she’s doing the right things. We look forward to continuing that success and working hard each day to get better.”
Edinburg’s size and defensive scheme played right into Memorial’s hands.
“They sat in their zone and I figured if our shots were going to fall, we’d just have to work the ball around and we’ll come out victorious,” Arredondo said. “We struggled inside, but we’ve got two super-athletic posts. Their rebounding helped us out a lot.”