McALLEN — The Valley View Tigers were well acquainted with adversity before their district schedule began.
After snapping one of the longest playoff droughts throughout the Rio Grande Valley basketball scene last season, the Valley View girls squad had to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, several delayed district games and the surprise dismissal of their head coach to finally reach their District 31-5A slate.
In a matchup between two likely playoff teams, Tigers center Jimena Muñoz dropped a game-high 20 points and point guard Julie Ponce added nine points and a team-high seven assists as the senior duo led Valley View in a 54-52 nail-biter victory over McAllen Memorial on Thursday to preserve their unblemished record in district play and a shot at capturing the district title.
“It’s definitely been hard with everything we’ve been through from losing our coach to several of our games being postponed due to COVID,” Ponce said. “We definitely put a lot of hard work into this, but (McAllen Memorial) is a really great team and I’m really glad that we were able to pull out the win. After all this, it was nice to just have the satisfaction of knowing that we did it.”
“We’ve come a long way,” Muñoz said. “It’s all due to our coach Arnold (Martinez). He’s been with us through all of this since the beginning and we’re grateful for him because if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
Munoz and Ponce traded blows back and forth with McAllen Memorial point guard Cori Talamantez and center Lasia Goldman in a matchup that featured two of the Rio Grande Valley’s most proficient floor generals and elite post players
At the beginning of the high-stakes clash between the Mustangs and Tigers — who sat in third and fifth place in the ultra-deep District 31-5A entering the night, respectively — it was Goldman and Muñoz who dominated early.
Goldman, a junior who has asserted herself as one of the Valley’s top interior defenders, erased shots all night and made driving the lane difficult for Valley View’s guards and wings. The Mustangs’ center tallied a 15-point, 13-rebound double-double on 70% shooting to go along with three blocks.
But it was the offensive versatility of Muñoz that allowed the Tigers to gain the early advantage.
Valley View’s veteran center hit contested fadeaways from the top of the key, drove the baseline repeatedly and displayed a wide array of post moves that kept Mustangs defenders guessing and helped her record a 7-of-14 shooting night and capitalize on frequent trips to the free-throw line.
“We had to attack the box,” Ponce said. “We noticed their foul count was high, so we just decided to drive and be aggressive.”
The Tigers were threatening to pull away by the end of the first quarter and led by as many as eight points until Talamantez came alive defensively and gave Memorial’s offense the spark it needed.
Talamantez, Memorial’s senior leader in the backcourt, played a stifling brand of half-court defense and pestered Valley View’s guards the moment they crossed the center strip on each possession.
That ignited a 6-0 Mustangs run and gave her team a major edge with the proficiency of their fastbreak offense.
Then Talamantez started to show off her range, as Memorial’s point guard sank all three of her team’s 3-pointers to keep pace with Valley View’s high-scoring offense, which was able to dissect the Mustangs defense in the half-court with surgical precision for most of the first half.
“Honestly it’s just a relief because we’ve been practicing,” Muñoz said. “Finally our hard work is starting to pay off and it showed tonight on this court.”
Both the Mustangs and Tigers upped their physicality at the start of the second half which put both teams in serious foul trouble down the stretch. Each side reached the bonus before the start of the fourth quarter.
The Tigers only had seven available players on the night and their game plan was further complicated when forward Angela Garcia fouled out with 4 minutes left to play.
That caused Valley View to dial back its intensity on the defensive end to avoid having to finish the game shorthanded, and the Mustangs seized their window of opportunity.
McAllen Memorial trimmed Valley View’s fourth-quarter lead from 12 down to two after some timely shooting and transitioning into a full-court press. Goldman banked in a layup off the glass to make it a one-score game with less than 2 seconds to play, but the Mustangs were unable to complete the late comeback.
Valley View improved to 8-6 on the season and 3-0 in District 31-5A with the win, while McAllen Memorial dropped to 9-7 overall and 4-3 in district play with both squads jockeying for playoff spots.
“We definitely need to keep playing well. Just because we won today doesn’t mean that we’re in (the playoffs),” Ponce said. “We still have to play them again and that’s going to be a tough game because they’re a really good team, and then we have (McAllen) Rowe and (Sharyland) Pioneer which are two other really good schools. We’ve just got to keep practicing and play aggressively.”
The Mustangs and Tigers will return to the court for a rematch against one another at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in Pharr.
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Twitter: @ByAndyMcCulloch