BY GREG SELBER

EDINBURG – Style it Revenge on Eddie Perkins, or 1937 Paybacks. But whatever you call it, remember this date. Because as the Valley’s Final Four played out at the Field House Tuesday night, some of the most compelling girls’ basketball in years was seen, between towns that have been rivals off and on since your great-grandparents were in high school.

Harlingen and Edinburg have been going at it tooth and claw since the world was young. Back in the late 1930s, the Bobcats ran the table in football but were later disqualified for having an ineligible player on the field against the Cardinals, losing a district title after a court decision.

Those who were there and those who were not still shake their heads at the unbelievable 1988 bi-district playoff football game matching the two luminaries, when Harlingen’s Perkins hauled in an improbable 60-yard bomb in the final seconds, leading to a game-winning field goal and a 2-point Card victory.

Now it was The University of Texas-Pan American as the site for the latest Hidalgo/Cameron known-down, drag-out, with a trip to the regional tournament on the line.

As the temperature sank like a stone outside, inside the stands filled early for the pinnacle night of the 2009-10 season. Harlingen South, winner of 98 games and loser of just 10 the past three years (10!) against an injury-depleted Edinburg High team that has simply refused to internalize the press clippings about its inevitable demise.

To follow, the suddenly dominant Edinburg North Lady Cougars, winners of 10 in a row, versus a familiar foe, the Harlingen Lady Cardinals, like EHS a gutty underdog, one which came home fourth in the Valley’s premier league but had battled through a pair of playoff wins behind the indomitable Nora Zamarripa.

SPOILER ALERT…To cut to the chase for those with something better to do than wade into this long-winded and epic tome, EHS by 6 over South in a huge upset, North in a blowout over a game but outmatched Lady Card group. Two Edinburg schools planning for the trip north, and a measure of revenge for defeats of the distant past.

COULDN’T SLEEP AT ALL LAST NIGHT

The Observer had breezily dismissed his 4:30 p.m. Specialized Reporting class at UTPA early Tuesday, to zero student unrest or resistance, it should be duly noted. Nothing was going to keep him away from this show of shows, a marquee match with the entire Valley either in attendance or waiting with bated breath for the latest text-message blast. It was good to be in the Valley Tuesday, with a chilled but howling capacity crowd on hand to see which pair of quintets would survive to travel to the rare air of San Antonio. One had to be a zombie not to feel the beat!

As EHS and South kicked off the furious festival, Zamarripa and North coach Jenny Gaytan stood on the side, smiling on one hand and thinking pleasant daggers on the other. If there is any one person who exemplifies the Edinburg-Harlingen history, it’s Coach Z. She basically started the Lady ‘Cat program back in 1982, and spent seven successful years with it until moving to Harlingen in 1988.

She regaled her young counterpart – who’d missed out on playing for her at EHS by two years – of tales from the past, including EHS’s crazy comeback win over No. 1 San Antonio MacArthur at this very stage of the playoff game back in the ‘80s. The wonderful Michelle Martin (one of the best there ever was in this area, write it down) had found herself under the basket all alone in the closing seconds, making a shot that would send the Lady Bobcats to the Sweet 16 that season.

Gaytan listened politely but with real interest, not quite sure if her veteran opposite was psyching her out or just being talkative before an ultimate battle. Was the pressure on her team, since the Lady Cougars had beaten Harlingen twice solidly in 31-5A play?

Both the coaches agreed that the pressure was on EVERYONE Tuesday. Gaytan said that either way, it was great to see Edinburg bring two teams to the dance.

“At least we know two Valley schools will be going to San Antonio,” the soft-spoken coach intoned.

Coach Z just smiled. No one expected her unit to be here, and she had seen enough funny business go down in 28 years on the bench to wonder if perhaps her odds-defying squad could pull off another biggie.

On the court, though, the action was percolating.

FAMILIAR AND YET…NOT

How was Edinburg here in the first place, some folks were saying in the run-up buzz. The Lady ‘Cats lost two starters late in the year and seemed to be limping to the finish line. But as the playoffs started, they got some major league contributions from former role players, and came into the regional quarterfinal brimming with confidence against all odds.

Meanwhile, South was, well, South, and that means hard times for any opponent seeking to check Dawn Engleman’s vaunted powerhouse, ranked in the state’s top 20 all season long. Pause…A couple of roster details stood out to those with the temerity to look. One was 59, the percentage the Lady Hawks had shot from the free-throw line through 34 games. The other was a predominance of low-fives, as in a comparatively small South band this season, with most prominent girls standing 5-foot-7 or shorter.

If EHS was going to have a chance against a team it had lost to twice already, it was going to have to think big, and be big. Forget about the injuries, come at the comer with all you’ve got, and throw caution to the wind.

In the pre-game pageant Laura Torres, the hard-charging junior who leads the team in scoring with 16 ppg this year, chest-bumped poor teammate Bianca Casas so hard up top that the latter almost fell backward on her can. Were the Lady ‘Cats fired up, or what?

Now South has lived by the pressure since Engleman came aboard nine years back, and in two previous wins against EHS, had employed that force to excellent results. But early on Tuesday, the Lady Bobcats got the ball to the middle, tried to use the pass as opposed to the risky dribble, and it worked OK.

Stephanie Nunez, the junior sharpshooter whose bombs have become more vital with the loss of senior Victoria Ponce to a knee woe (the latter appeared briefly Tuesday), has been on her game in the playoffs, adding terrific defensive pressure to her famed long-range stroke. Scoring off a stickback for a three-point play and knocking down a trey, she kept her team in the mix early.

But gradually Ariel Guevara and Miranda Garcia, South’s twin mini-buzzsaws, started to find the ball in the backcourt. Though Edinburg managed to get the ball up, it began to rush shots once across the timeline. The press can kill in two ways, one by forcing a turnover early in the sequence, and two, by harassing the offense into quick, ill-advised shots in the frontcourt. The latter was the early scenario for EHS.

It was a furious first period as Ashley Bukowksi (active early) stole one and rushed in for two. Only problem, Casas stormed after her and slapped the shot away at the last minute.

Nunez and Casas had great looks down low as the Lady ‘Cats settled down, but Josslyn Benavidez, the Lady Hawk team leader possessing equal parts talent and pride, bombed in a trifecta and it was 17-15, South, at the horn.

Of all bands, Quiet Riot was the music of choice between quarters (ugh) but not one of the 4,000 spectators tearing their hair out in a frenzy had to be challenged to feel the noiz in the least. It was constant, palpable and stirring.

Edinburg started to assert its size down low, pounding the ball in and piling up fouls against South, which was a step slow on the switch and help. Nunez stepped up to can a three in rhythm but soon, the Danger Zone. Guevera, the 5-2 powerpack whose doe-eyed looks bely her killer instinct on the hardwood, had 10 in the half and led a defensive charge that set up Engleman’s warriors at 26-19. This is how South rolls. Before you know it, you’re on the receiving end of a point blitz, and you’re way done.

With Anaka Garcia, the Valley’s second leading rebounder, out for the year with a broken foot, the Lady Bobcats have turned to Sharmee Tigner and Michellin Mercelita to pick up the considerable slack. The former is a transfer from Economedes who can bang with the best, while the freshman Mercelita is a long-limbed greyhound folks about whom the locals will be hearing gobs in coming campaigns.

Those two combined to save the day for Edinburg, just when it looked like the Lady Hawks were in the process of going all demolition derby on their prey for the third time running.

Tigner spun in the lane in a crowd, banking in a tough shot, and Mercelita skied above the rest at the other end for an impressive defensive board. Tigner outfought Guevara on the offensive glass and with 4:04 left, Coach Rachel Carmona had been the beneficiary of a bailout that all political parties would be satisfied with.

Tigner scored again off the glass, her confidence growing by the minute, and even though Nunez picked up her third foul, Casas uncorked a bullet pass down to Torres, who flipped in a layup to cut the margin to 2. After Bukowksi (10 in the half) sank two free throws, the cool junior Casas then tossed in a three-ball to close it to one again.

Even though Casas and Torres misfired on easy lays near the buzzer, EHS was coming, down just one after having been close to extinction.

Tigner noted after the game that though she felt nervous at the beginning of the night, that soon went away.

“I just came to play, and we all did,” said the strong-framed junior. “Hey, we’ve played good the last couple of games even with the injuries, so we figured we’d just keep it going. Everyone doubted us coming in, but tonight we decided that it was our turn…our time. We played for the injured girls, we played for ourselves. We just played.”

And indeed, the key to hanging with South, district champ for more years than we can recall, is this: don’t believe the hype. Yes, the Lady Hawks are the real item, as their record will attest. But they’d dropped a district game for the first time since 2006 this season, to the Lady Coogs of the nightcap. They were 31-3…but beatable.

STORM BREWING

The third period was the telling, eventually anyway, as Casas (10 for the game, Nunez had 11 with Torres coming home with 23, more on her later) gave her gals a quick lead. But beating South isn’t as easy as all that.

The Lady Hawks regained their form with a nice run, mainly from the foul line as they began to drive and draw and dish. Problem: after making 9 of 9 in the first half from the stripe, they got only 6 of 12 in the third. The inside work was good for a 42-35 lead midway through the stanza, but those misses would come back to haunt them, along with more clanks down the stretch.

It was Danger Zone II for the underdog, plain and simple. If they were going to beat the system and return to the Sweet 16 for the first time since the Marah Guzman salad days in 2005-06, now was the time to get it together.

Again, the newcomers, as Mercelita hauled in a long pass from Casas and converted to cut the lead to 5. The fab frosh then leapt like a panther for one of her five blocks, and Casas tied up Benavidez for a turnover.

Every time South looked to put it away, EHS would not budge.

Guevara, sad and withdrawn afterward, would say that mistakes and bad free-throw shooting were the culprits in the upset.

“I think we let our emotions get the best of us at times tonight,” she suggested. “We just couldn’t finish, and that’s not like us. EHS played hard and we made some big mistakes, we were unable to make positives out of negatives, you know what I mean? They played physical and it hurt us, even though we were physical at times too. We just let them catch up too many times.”

With the tide turning, Mercelita rose up for a board and again sank a short one at the other end. The Lady ‘Cats caught their foe at 46 on a Tigner hoop and then Torres stole one and knocked down a J for the lead, the team’s first since 13-12 back in the first period.

They ended the quarter up four at 52-48 as Tigner again was the key, firing a pass to Emma Lopez, who made good. Casas to Mercelita was the final hoop of the period, with South worried and EHS feeling mighty sweet.

To that point, the aggression expert Torres had put in 14, but was warming up for a dynamite finish. But first the team would have to contend with fouls, as Lopez, Nunez and Casas were all in danger of leaving early.

They tried to slow the pace a bit, but against South, no soap. Making their last fine stand of the night, the Lady Hawks came at EHS like a hurricane, but managed just two field goals in the last eight minutes. They carved out a 56-all tie at 3:39 in spite of it, but should have put more distance between themselves and the usurper, missing four free throws in the clutch.

There were several signature plays at the close, the first of which was a drive for a three-point play the Old School Way by Casas for a 59-56 Red and Blue lead. Benavidez was hammered viciously down low and rose with tears in her eyes to drop in a pair of nothing-but-net charity tosses but Torres, who would make six in a row from the line when it counted, matched that for a 61-58 score.

Forgetting their previous problems at the line, the Lady Hawks got two money flips from Garcia to stay on the Lady ‘Cat heels. Eighty seconds to go, with history hanging in the rafters.

EHS held, but Guevara raced in for a steal. But whistle, and travel, and new life. Torres to the line for two at 1:02, Bukowksi answering with one of two after a super offensive board. On the rebound after the miss, Torres provided The Moment, ripping the ball away from Benavidez and with a bone-crunching hip check depositing the South star on her back in the process. It was symbolic of physical dominance, and an unlikely changing of the guard, at least for 2010.

Casas hit a pair of free throws for a team that converted 10 of 12 in the fourth (difference-maker, there) and all that remained was the unusual sight of the Lady Hawks trying vainly to pull a six-point play out of its bag of tricks.

It was not to be, and Edinburg (28-8 and headed north) celebrated a 66-61 shocker a second early, as the clock had apparently not run out before the kids started to party. No matter, a technicality. A Lady Bobcat triumph, in stunning fashion against the Valley’s No. 1 squad.

What is it about Pan Am that brings out the best in basketball, we ask, remembering last year’s Weslaco-McAllen instant quarterfinal classic on the boys side. Hell, let’s start scheduling November scrimmages there, why don’t we?

Leave it to Torres, who straddles the border between cocky and confident like a seasoned Antarctic explorer on the Pole, to put into perspective the mind-altering turn of events.

“No one thought we could win, but we’d already beaten a number one seed, San Antonio Southwest,” she crowed after the game. And indeed, to get here EHS had knocked off Southwest by a point on Friday. “Well, we wanted to come out and show people what we got, we had to beat a number one again, and we did. How about that?”

How about that, for sure. Whatever happened to Eddie Perkins anyway?

PART TWO OF THE PARTY

Still with us, intrepid sports fan? Would that the nightcap had produced as much drama as the opener, one of the best basketball games any time, anywhere, any team. But it was less of a compelling storyline, rather more of the continuation of a theme.

Just as South had taken the measure of EHS twice during the year, North came into the gateway game to the Sweet 16 having bested Harlingen both times the two squared off. But Harlingen has been tricky all season, with a fast start, a lull in early December, and then a memorable skein that made the Valley take notice. The team devoid of senior starters has beaten Hidalgo and EHS (!) back to back to make the headlines before losing in the Jostens Classic final to end the year.

In 31-5A, the Lady Cards began with two losses and then had several streaks to the good and bad before clocking in at 7-7, 22-11. But fourth in 31-5A is a good lick, considering that loop’s domination of 32-5A in bi-district while Laredo-area clubs were handing it to four 30-5A contingents. This has been the middle Valley league’s finest season, begun with three of its powers advancing to the third round of the state football playoffs up at the AlamoDome. Hoops offered more of the same, and so here it was, another Edinburg-Harlingen town tussle.

For reasons probably owing to proximity, the local rooters were a sight more plentiful and a good ear more raucous than their Harlingen friends. At least that was the surmise of Bianca Torre, former South mega-star now plying her trade quite well for UTPA. She was on hand along with a raft of local legends too numerous to name.

At any rate, neither team was hurting for support, but the Edinburgers were louder, perhaps because they hadn’t been Sweet for four seasons. And in North, the loyals had a club to cheer on whose deepest penetration ever had been the third round, back in the late 1990s. in fact, the program had reached the quarters three times prior to Tuesday, with the 26-11 Lady Coogs and their fourth-year coach wanting to craft some history just like Roy Garza’s football Coogs had done in 2009.

Gaytan, let it be noted, was a standout Lady Bronc guard a generation ago who was good enough to earn a WNBA tryout. She’s got fond memories of letting it all hang out on the self-same floor her girls would be traversing for the night.

And this team has been playing better by the week. North took the high, tough road to start 2009-10, going 2-5 with some brutal tries against classy upstate competition, but soon returned home to show that it had learned some valuable lessons on the road. One was that the Lady Coogs were ready to take the next step. After going 7-7 in league two years ago, improving that mark last year but losing in bi-district each time, North set about the annual 31-5A brawl with a talented, tested team of kids who have been on the varsity for eons.

Their seniors, four-year star Brandy Garcia and dependable guard Essence Brown, have seen it all with Gaytan and the program; they had all come in together and wanted to go out with a statement. But could they defeat the pesky Lady Cards once again?

Yes.

After a miserable onset during which they made three turnovers and hosted up two of the worst shots in basketball history, the Lady Coogs, who would soon be 27-11 and San Antone-bound, found the stride that has made them difficult to handle the past few weeks. Fresh off 10 straight wins, including bi-district over Lopez (68-33) and area against Laredo United (45-40), this band got the sound-check down quickly.

The catalyst was Dani Vargas, a speedy junior point guard who struggled early in her North career with a series of serious internal illnesses. She wasted away to 20 pounds below her playing weight, did Jenny Gaytan’s niece, but in the past 18 months her strength has returned, and along with it her scintillating leadership skills.

She produced eight points in the first period and passed for three assists as North roared back from a 4-0 deficit to take an 18-11 lead after eight minutes. There had been cynics in the past who insisted that though the Lady Coogs were certainly possessing of individual ability, their team concept, especially in the halfcourt offense, left something to be desired. In taking second place ahead of Edinburg in 31-5A, however Gaytan’s Gals had come to the fore as a tight cutting-and-passing unit that also paced the league in three-point shooting.

Against Harlingen it was smooth sailing with Vargas throwing in a triple and ending the first half with 13 points. Teammate Vicky Pena, a sophomore gym rat with excellent one-on-one chops, chipped in with 10 as the Lady Coogs led 31-19.

With Brown leading the defensive charge out front, North dogged Harlingen into bad shots, shoddy passes, and very few second opportunities inside with Garcia and emerging junior post Vianey Salinas holding forth. Vargas’ three had given them a 10-point lead at 23-13 with 7:11 to play in the second, and Pena raced for six in a row to account for the 12-point halftime bulge.

Near the end of the 31-5A slate, North had blown a 20-point intermission margin before finally subduing EHS by two. The Lady Coogs were not about to see that happen again. They blasted the Lady Cards 18-9 in the third, buoyed by eight from Garcia, the do-it-all vet who led the team in rebounding and blocked shots this year. She stepped out to can back-to-back threes to make it 43-23 at 4:19, and Harlingen never recovered.

The underdog had come into the match depleted, with flashy soph guard Demmie Rodriguez ailing from a knee injury that had limited her minutes during the initial two rounds, wins over 32-5A top seed Los Fresnos and then a salty Del Rio crew. She tried to go Tuesday but was a virtual no-go, and robbed of their team speed, the Lady Cards struggled against a North bunch that can really get out in the transition game.

Junior Ashley Adams led her team with 11 points, including a trio of bombs in a pedestrian second half, while up-and-coming soph Bianka Martinez managed 10 with a game-best 12 boards. This group will be back intact next year and should be one of the favorites to compete for the crown. But Tuesday was all about North, which jetted to a 60-41 decision in one of its best all-around performances of the campaign.

“We did a great job tonight, although not at the beginning,” said Gaytan, whose club will now look to a rematch against state-ranked San Antonio Jay, which blew the Lady Coogs out by 40 in an early tournament. “The girls are really learning to read each other out there. The team chemistry has never been better than it was tonight.”

For her niece, Vargas, the win was extra rich considering all the health issues she has dealt with in the past. The fast-fingered point guard noted that her team had entered into uncharted territory Tuesday.

“None of us has ever been this far and it was great to play in front of such a big crowd,” she said. “You have no idea how exciting this is for us!”

Her longtime teammate Garcia added that every time the girls come out to play these days, they improve on various aspects of their game.

“I know I have said this before, but it’s true,” she laughed. “We’re getting better every day…we’re finding each other, cutting, spreading the floor, and we’re making our shots. In a way, I can’t believe we’ve gone this far, but we sure have worked hard to do it. Maybe nobody imagined that we could make to the Sweet 16, but we’re going!”

Tags: Basketball- Girls, edinburg, edinburg north, harlingen, harlingen south, UTPA