BY GREG SELBER
Teresa Casso
Being part of a top-shelf program that has won 114 games the four seasons has its perks, but it also brings some anxiety, when it comes to being charged with keeping the excellence going. Being on a squad coached by a living legend is a plus in itself, as it tends to will the team forward, seeming to be good for about three buckets a night in intimidation and tradition. However, there remains the gargantuan task of living up to The Mentor’s expectations, and that can be pretty nerve-wracking.
The Lady Bulldogs of Coach Teresa Casso took the floor Friday night knowing that the visitor, McAllen Rowe, was just one of the many teams in District 30-5A who think they smell blood in the water right now. With McAllen High off to a sub-.500 start in 2009-10, and no superstars of note on board for the first time since the program started its playoff streak in 1998, who could blame the upstart Lady Warriors for sensing the opening? Especially with tremendous Brittanie “The Best” leading the way, she of the amazing 43-point scoring night earlier in the season.
Not so fast, smart aleck. When the Lady ‘Dogs bum-rushed the opponent for a 19-2 start to this one, it seemed like early curtains for this girls’ b-ball drama, Best of No Best. But Rowe (1-1, 6-12) recovered from a terribly clueless stretch to inch back into things. Though they were down 15 at the half, the Lady Warriors refused to go away, and thanks to a gutty 17-4 run, were right in the thick of things down the stretch.
With maniac guard Monica Guerrero pounding away outside and Best beginning to find the range after a slow start and foul trouble, Rowe actually took a 44-40 lead late, before a clutch three-point play from backup post Grace Grazier tied things with 28 seconds to go.
This crazy night extended into overtime, with fans on each side of the gym going overtime on the hard-luck referees. McAllen was first to the tape in the extra period, winning 54-49 by converting seven free throws while Rowe made just 1 of 8, and afterward, with a huge sigh of relief, the Purple Gals celebrated a 2-0 start in district and talked a bit about the glory and pressures of being a Lady ‘Dog.
“We made a lot of mistakes but we came back at the end and that’s what counts,” exclaimed junior guard Joanna Reyes, who had nine points in the first period to key what looked like Blowout City. “We lost our focus there, but we came through with a team effort.”
Then she made a wry face when asked about the fact that Rowe definitely came in with upset in mind. That nagging question again.
“It’s frustrating because everyone things we’re weak this year,” she admitted, after making four big charity tosses in the waning minutes of OT. “I mean, we’re not in the top 10 right now and the other teams say they can beat us. Rowe played with a lot of heart, you could tell they wanted it. But we wanted it more, and we had more heart at the end.”
It is true that McHigh (8-14) has struggled this year, with a 0-6 start against some serious competition upstate tournaments. But Casso says that her team is starting to play better these days, and that all the preseason losses woke her girls up.
Janel Diaz agrees. She is probably the tiniest post in the history of high school basketball, but the 5-foot-3 senior is all heart, using strong legs and slick positioning to compensate for lack of God-given inches.
“Right, I am the shortest girl on the team,” she quipped after a workmanlike, 9-point, 12-rebound night. “Not the shortest post…the shortest player period. But you know what, I still get the job done.”
Diaz says that being a Lady Bulldog has its moments, given the program’s long history of quality ball. But she also nodded to the difficulty couched therein.
“Sure, there’s pressure, we know how good the teams have been in the past, some of us have been a part of them,” she commented. “No one thinks that this year we can do the same, we don’t have the shining star like Ali Bills, but we just have to do what we can do and not worry about it.”
Like Reyes – who averaged in double figures during that dreadful winless start to the season and recently notched a career high with 30 points – Diaz laments for the fact that the team is not ranked. She also explained some of the troubles The Mac experienced Friday night.
“I think we got a little overconfident there with a big lead,” she said. “We took some shots we shouldn’t have and we let them come back. But we did make our free throws at the end. Heck, that’s all we do sometimes in practice is free throws, and it paid off. We pulled together when we had to.”
Truly, free throws, as so often is the case, ended up being the difference in this nutty match. The kids will have to grit their teeth while watching the tape show them the myriad chances each had to put the game away in the fourth quarter. The atmosphere was so manic in the tiny Mac gym that at times the units forgot basic basketball and just went at each other like twin wolfpacks. For the night, the Lady Dogs converted 13 of 27 free throws and normally a percentage south of 50 will spell doom. Luckily for Casso’s Crew, Rowe was worse, to the tune of 33 percent (8 of 24) and when they had the opportunity to slow things down, with a lead in the final two minutes, the Lady Warriors did not do that…and it killed them.
THE GOING IS GOOD EARLY
The Mac was all over the athletic Best like a pair of pants to begin, and its offense pushed upcourt, passed well, and scored at will against a Rowe team that played blind the first five minutes. Reyes was outstanding, keying a firm defensive charge and knocking down a pair of lefty threes. Best, double-teamed and knocked around pretty liberally by the small but mean frontcourt of The Mac, was off her game, although she did make a number of sweet passes to beat the swarming D.
She also sank a sailing, buzzer-beating trifecta at the end of the period to make it 19-8, but the sense in the gym and from her iffy body language walking back to the bench was dejection, and maybe desperation.
Still, with Guerrero on the floor, one can count on aggression. When these two teams met last year twice, it was foulfest all the way, with the senior guard, a virtual bag of bruises waiting to happen, in the lead role.
Guerrero is quick and strong, and she will stick you, serious business and elbow pads for a reason. She tried to bring her team back from the precipice with some nasty D and it worked, but not until the third. The second period was plain ugly all the way around; it was won 6-2 by the Lady ‘Dogs but was not a decent display of performance from any perspective.
The astute observer, though, could notice a trend developing. Rowe got to the open player better, started closing off the passing lanes, and the result was that despite taking a 25-10 lead into the lockers, McHigh seemed confused, rattled, and perhaps thinking about all the maybes and no-ways that had transpired at the outset of the year. It ain’t easy following the act of the Garzas, Bills, and Becka Valdez, stars of the recent past. Sometimes you try too hard to prove you belong in the same conversation; sometimes you just can’t seem to find the right combination to make it happen.
At any rate, Rowe came back out and looked like a different squad altogether, finally getting some offensive flow, continuing the solid defensive effort, and starting to chip away at the lead.
McAllen was now tentative, seemingly afraid to let the shots fly, and Rowe surged, with Guerrero hitting eight in the third and Best adding seven, including another trey. From 36-23 it became 40-36, and finally 40 apiece before a dazzled Rowe fan base on one side of the noisy house.
With 2:19 to go, Best (15 points, 14 rebounds) put her team ahead by two and at 1:36 Guerrero stole one and went to the goal for a 44-40 advantage. Big lead? What big lead?
The Mac was in trouble, Jack.
But somewhere deep within lay the heart of champions past, and the Lady ‘Dogs answered the challenge at the last minute. During a timeout, Casso diagrammed a play and in an almost soothing voice told her team what it needed to do, literally and figuratively. It must have made sense.
Scoreless to that point, the 6-1 Grazier made a free throw to cut the margin to 3. Then she got loose inside after a Rowe turnover for a bucket in traffic and one, which she made with 28 seconds remaining to save the day.
OT. Reyes (18 to lead all scorers) drove hard to the rack and was fouled, but clanked two free throws. Best returned the favor by missing two that each rolled around and out, to a stomping leap and anguished fist pump by the star forward at the line.
Diaz came down and made a pair of money tosses for a 46-44 lead and later promising sophomore Arie Guerra (12 points, eight rebounds) threw in a huge basket to make it 48-45. With Rowe overdoing plays on offense and missing free throws, the home girls closed it out, with a sweat drop to spare. Grazier again starred late, with a pair of blocks on Best.
Say what one will about their record, and their chances of repeating as a deep-penetrating playoff team. Doesn’t matter right now. They’re 2-0 in league, and forget about all the negative talk. McHigh lives, and who knows what this bunch will accomplish down the line.
Tags: Basketball- Girls, mchi, teresa casso
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