Watch The Sweet 16 Live

SPONSORED BY FAIRES PLUMBING CO., INC
EDINBURG, TX

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

Harlingen South Ariel Guevarra

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.

Newcomers Help Move Edinburg Past South

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!”

BY GREG SELBER

SAN JUAN – One of the local papers had decided that Edinburg, on a two-game losing streak and minus two starters due to injury, was the underdog Monday night against a steady Weslaco group. Or at any rate, that’s how the Lady Bobcats interpreted it.

So Lady Bobcat Coach Rachel Carmona executed the logical maneuver to try and motivate her team, which dropped to third place in District 31-5A in the last week of play after having been in contention for the league title. She put that clipping up on the bulletin board for popular consumption.

“That’s the first thing I did, I wanted them to see it,” said Carmona, whose gritty bunch grinded out a 45-42 bi-district win with some late heroics from Laura Torres and clutch free throws by Emma Lopez. “Weslaco played some great defense tonight, they got us rattled a bit midway through. But our girls kept their composure, they made some big shots at the end.”

EHS (26-8) outlasted the Pantherettes (23-13) with their leading rebounder (Anaka Garcia) on the bench along with three-point shooting whiz Victoria Ponce. Those wounded seniors watched as their teammates grabbed an early 8-point lead, lost it by halftime, and then came up large and in charge when the chips were down.

Torres, who led her team with 14 points, converted a layup for a 42-40 lead and then ripped one from Weslaco’s Alex Rocha to gain possession. With 33 seconds left, Lopez made a pair of free throws under pressure for a 44-40 lead, and after Clari Villarreal (19 to lead all scorers) tossed one in, Torres popped one of two to give her team the cushion it needed to advance to area against the winner of Tuesday’s San Antonio Southwest-McAllen Rowe matchup.

It was nip and tuck all the way for the Lady ‘Cats, who’d looked like world-beaters until their injury problems. Torres, who has picked up the slack in the absence of two regulars, said that the fact that the team was underrated coming in made a difference in the approach to the bi-district battle.

“They were calling us a ‘sleeper,’ or whatever,” the aggressive junior shrugged. “But we just felt like we had to come out and prove that we have a playoff-worthy team, even with the injuries. Some people really stepped up tonight and had amazing games, like Emma. We just had to push a little harder tonight, and we did that.”

Lopez, a feast-or-famine inside player who has played a more prominent role in the EHS gameplan these days, can dominate at times, but at others has a tendency to force shots. She was shooting in the mid-50s percentage-wise from the free-throw line coming in, but stepping to the stripe inside the final minute did not faze her.

“Oh, I guess I was a little nervous,” admitted the burly senior, who’s got some nifty low-post moves and hit the boards hard Monday for a game-high 14 caroms. “But I just thought of practice. We work a lot in practice on free throws and if we miss, sometimes we have to run. I just thought, ‘You know…I really don’t want to run right now!’”

OLD FOES SQUARE OFF

These two teams were outstanding last year, each extending beyond bi-district before getting silenced by McAllen High down the road. But neither was exactly on a roll coming in this time, as EHS had dropped a pair while Weslaco went down to a surging Brownsville Lopez group last week. These two had met earlier in the season, with Edinburg winning by five.

Coach Griselda Fino’s band has weathered the loss of star Kimberly Armstrong, out all year with a torn ACL, getting strong block work from Rocha (13 rebounds Monday) and explosive scoring from Villarreal and Kim Marquez. Before the bi-district tilt, Fino noted that as far as she was concerned, her team was 0-0 once again.

“I think we’ve grown up a lot, and we aren’t inexperienced anymore,” she said. “I mean, what is it, 30 games? We should be ready to do it now.”

The second-place finisher from 32-5A has been consistent all year, with losses to league champs Hidalgo and McAllen Memorial, plus defeats against Edinburg and Edinburg North before a steady climb through the Lower Valley league. Matched against the Lady ‘Cats for the second time, they started slowly but came gradually on, establishing a 24-21 halftime bulge.

EHS had jumped out fast, pounding the boards against a roster with only one legitimate inside player and very little depth. Standing in for the shelved Garcia, freshman Michellin Mercelita, Lopez, and rugged Sharmee Tigner took turns down low, and the result was a 16-8 early advantage for the Red and Blue. Mercelita pounced for an early block on Rocha while Tigner, sister of former Economedes multi-sport star Shay Hernandez (on hand to watch the action at P-SJ-A High) came up with a pair of steals and a deuce to get rolling in the first.

With Bianca Casas tossing great passes out front, Edinburg did not look like much of a sleeper. Torres, averaging 16 ppg for the year with a high of 41 versus P-SJ-A Memorial, would throw in eight in the half.

But just as they’d been sharp in the first, the Lady ‘Cats slowed down after the initial eight minutes, standing around on defense and trying without success to dump the ball down low from too high out front.

Weslaco got down and dirty on D and took advantage to spin off a 12-3 run, with Marquez and Villarreal out-quicking the EHS guards and pulling up in open space for uncontested shots. When Jiselle DeLeon made a free throw following a netter from Villarreal, it was 24-19, Pantherettes, late. Casas came down with an answer to make it a 3-point game at the half.

WHICH WAY WILL IT GO?

In the past, Edinburg has been a dangerous three-point shooting club, but without Ponce, it has been a tougher go from the outside. The team’s best remaining long-range shooter is Stephanie Nunez, who came in with 31 bombs to her credit, and when she and Casas knocked down trifectas in the third – each landing on the floor after their shot – the tally was 29 apiece with a lot of basketball left to be played. Those three-balls were absolutely mandatory for the Lady ‘Cats to entertain hopes of moving on.

Villarreal, who’s got hot wheels and is at her best breaking down the D with the dribble-drive, went off for nine in the third quarter but Nunez, playing one of her best all-around games of the year, turned up the defensive intensity Monday. She can seem to float on the outside waiting for the rainbow J at times, but with the playoffs on the line, the spindly Pharr North transfer got after it, big time.

“At one point she told me, ‘I have four fouls? That’s impossible,’” laughed Torres, adding that her teammate was simply one of the keys to the win with her loose-ball dives and gutsy defense.

Villarreal drained a money three from the corner for a 37-34 margin as the third drained away, but again it was Tigner with the huge step-up, battling to two free throws and then giving her group the go-ahead at 38-37 with a score from the near baseline heading into the fourth.

At times in the final period, it looked like a match out of the 1940s, as each team took some air out of the ball at different junctures, trying to shorten the night and bring it down to a couple of execution attempts. Lopez hammered inside for a shortie and after a Tigner steal, the Lady ‘Cats went delay, looking for the backdoor cut against a fast Weslaco D.

However, the Pantherettes held and got three free throws to knot the affair at 40. Rocha’s offensive rebound off a missed charity toss was the high point of the sequence; that girl is strong, moves well, and has sure hands. Though she scored just six points, she was a force on the blocks.

With Guns n’ Roses (who?) blaring raucous waves through the gym and a vaguely annoying DJ reminding the crowd that, “This is the plaaaayyofffs!” the units returned to action, with the ultimate result like low-hanging fruit, there for either to grab with one last burst of effort, against fatigue.

Lopez spun in the lane for a way-off attempt but then Torres came up with the steal against Rocha after her layup, and EHS was in the driver’s seat up 2 at 42-40.

With Edinburg holding, Lopez nearly turned it over at 1:26 and soon after, Weslaco’s Villarreal corralled a loose ball caused by defensive pressure from DeLeon.

Down came the Pantherettes with a chance to tie, but Rocha missed inside under duress from Mercelita and Lopez. After a Weslaco foul and EHS inbounds, the tricky junior Casas found Lopez, with Rocha hacking her for two shots.

The senior post calmly sank a pair but Villarreal raced down to bring it back to a 2-point thing. Then Torres weaved her way through three defenders to reach the frontcourt, and with 13 seconds left, made one of two from the line to seal it.

A few days ago, such an outcome might have seemed like a longshot for a team hampered by obstacles and with its back against the wall. But the Lady ‘Cats refused to lose Monday, getting important contributions from a number of kids who have toiled in the shadows for the most part in 2009-10. It’s the kind of win a coach will remember for a long time.

“They did great tonight, they worked hard,” Carmona grinned afterward. “They kept their cool and they did what they had to do at the end. I am very proud of my girls.”

BY GREG SELBER

EDINBURG – Coming from a gutty junior who has always used terrific defense as her calling card, 41 points in a game would seem to be a fantastic misprint. But as Edinburg’s Laura “LT” Torres continues to refine her skill set, she averages 15 a night with the same dynamic, in-your-face stop routine against enemy offenses. Yes, she recorded 40-and-1 against P-SJ-A Memorial Tuesday, but says that she never goes out on the court dreaming about points. This powerpack wants the loose ball…and usually gets it.

“No, I never think about stuff like that, scoring points…I just come to play,” said Torres, whose 26-point effort led the Lady Bobcats to a 51-45 slugfest win over 31-5A rival Harlingen here Friday night. “After this game, I am hurting a little, that was a very physical game, both Harlingen teams are like that, they play hard. But points? Nah, I wasn’t trying to duplicate that.”

Modesty aside, it was nonetheless up to the junior guard to once again pull off a big night, O and D, with Harlingen coming to town intent on taking advantage of a wounded Lady ‘Cat contingent.

Senior Anaka Garcia, reduced to coaching and cheerleading roles after suffering a broken foot Monday in practice, made a big hole in the lineup with her absence. She’d averaged 11 rebounds a game, good for third in the Valley, scored 12 a night, and even brought the ball down the court a handful of times each game for Coach Rachel Carmona.

Seeing Garcia on crutches for the second game in a row was tough for the Lady Bobcats, while Harlingen, 4-4 coming in and needing a win to keep their playoff hopes rolling against the 6-1 Lady Bobcats, was sure to notice the change.

But Garcia, a four-year varsity performer who toiled diligently to get ready for her senior year and came to camp in the best shape of her life, had insisted before the game that her teammates were going to pick up the slack.

“No, I think it is going to be OK, they all have their jobs to do and someone is going to step up and play,” said Garcia during pregame shooting drills, as she used a crutch to stop an errant ball and re-direct it back onto the court.

Torres, who would be called upon to produce another high-scoring night, later said that despite the depressing injury to her long-time pal, this was not going to derail the EHS effort.

“We have to keep playing hard, I mean, we miss Anaka a lot, and she’s a great player,” said Torres, who smiles easily off the court but is all business, down and dirty, on it. “We have to prove that we still have what it takes, without her. Next year, she’ll be graduated and we will be here, so right now we have to start picking it up, no matter what.”

WHO’S IT GONNA BE?

When a star goes down, somebody gets a chance to show what they can do, such is the ironic nature of the sports injury. One player’s disaster is quietly another’s moment to come up to scratch. As EHS began the night against a Harlingen team it was more than faintly acquainted with after three previous meetings, the surprise card in the hole was a freshman.

One look at Mercelita Michellin screams basketball, as she is nearly 5-10 and has exceptionally long arms. She can run like the wind and jump higher than most upperclassmen, so they only thing missing in her promising resume is experience. There ain’t no way to get it, but to get it, so there was the lanky youth, winning the opening tap for the Lady ‘Cats. Soon she would contribute three blocked shots and four points in the early going, presenting well to the spot down low, flying at opponents on D, and generally acquitting herself like someone who wants more minutes.

“She did well for us tonight,” said Torres of the freshman big. “And she’s just a baby, really. You watch, she is going to get way better in time, she’s super fast.”

With Mercy taking over for Garcia, and Torres starting off like a racehorse with 11 first-quarter points (points, what points, says the defensive specialist), Edinburg assumed a 15-8 lead. Outside of a 1-point loss to the Lady Cards at the Jostens Classic in December, EHS had handled its adversary well the other two times, including 49-29 during 31-5A’s first round. But that was with Garcia in the mix. As strong as the freshman Michellin is, she does not have varsity lungs yet and spent much of the rest of the half shuttling in and out, trying to rest up on the bench.

Down a player on crutches, the Lady ‘Cats had struck first blood. But there was a rejoinder coming.

In Harlingen’s win over EHS at the Jostens, the team had come came from 16 down in the second half to take a thrilling victory it on a 3-pointer from Martinez inside the final 10 seconds. The fullcourt press had rattled the Lady ‘Cats, and one suspected that the Lady Cards might just resort to that tactic again, as it is a formidable and usual weapon in their arsenal.

They did show the pressure, but only for a few minutes in each half, preferring to settle into the halfcourt set and employ their excellent passing game to work patiently for shots. The Adams Twins, Megan and Ashley, are workaholic types who move without the ball constantly and keep the pill moving as well, trying to find the open player off the backdoor cut.

To start the second period, though, the press was on, and it bothered Edinburg. Demmie Rodriguez, a sophomore lightning bug in baggy shorts, keyed the charge. From that 7-point deficit, on came the Lady Cards, with Ashley Adams raining in three jumpers for six point in the quarter, which culminated with the home girls on top, but just 17-16. Soph Bianka Martinez began to feel the game with a high-arching jumper and a blocked shot on Emma Lopez of EHS.

Harlingen got into sync while EHS faltered against the fullcourt traps, and after a 16-6 quarter in their favor, the Lady Cards took a 28-23 lead into the halftime rest. Rodriguez, who has the fastest first step this side of Neshae Owens, began to dissect the defense with her penetrating ability, scoring eight in the second period. For EHS, there was just one basket in the eight minutes of play, from Torres, plus four free throws.

After such a great beginning, the Garcia-less group had lost the mojo, and faced an uphill struggle for the final 16 minutes to come.

“We have a coach who expects us to win and that makes a huge difference,” said Torres, who added that the kids on the roster have learned to expect the same thing. “I for one don’t want to let Coach Carmona down, you know what I mean?”

And true, this match Friday paired two of the winningest coaches in the business, Rachel Carmona of Edinburg and Nora Zamarripa of Harlingen, who have combined for over 1,000 wins between them. Their district fights are always fierce and their pregame strategy brainstorms legendary. They tend to ignore each other during the game, though each knows the other is trying to see into her brain as it ticks away. Fun stuff from two classics of the game. Fun for us civilians, murder for them.

In carving out the 5-point lead, Harlingen had been sharper with the pass, and stronger on defense after a sluggish first four minutes. But in the third, the pride of the EHS five was apparent as Bianca Casas, quiet in the first half, turned it on. She has a damn fast pair of feet herself, and has gotten more adept in her junior year with the head-up dribble, quick change of direction with a well-time behind-the-back dribble, and fast feed for two. With Garcia out, Casas is going to be called on to carry some of her load, along with Torres; those two are the bell cows now, no two ways around it.

Casas came up with a steal, hoop, and-one to get her team off and running, and when she scored on an inbounds play the game was knotted at 30 at 4:28. So much for the Harlingen momentum, it seemed. That’s when Torres started to dominate and again, she is not just a defensive stopper these days; she’s scoring in bunches with hard drives to the goal and buckets of free throws after drawing contact. LT creates enough contact to control the defender, and uses the combination of a quick burst and ample leg strength to blow by to the goal.

She made it 36-34 with a powerful move off the dribble, Edinburg leading. This after Harlingen had been in front, 30-23, on a Rodriguez deuce. But Zamarripa’s gals went cold from there, managing just eight markers in the period against 19 for the hard-running Lady ‘Cats. Torres zoomed and bruised her way past the defense for six, and Casas netted eight as Edinburg took charge.

Steph Nunez missed a trey for EHS but there was Torres, knocking a few opponents out of the play for an offensive rebound. LT is naturally strong, and the effect is more so due to her aggression, which borders on the unreal. Play after play, she is just the first girl to the loose ball, and is not shy about “protecting” herself with an elbow here or there. Or there. Or here.

Suffice to say that if she keeps this double-time dance up, Torres is going to be among the favorites for All-Valley Player of the Year next year. Or this. Anyway…

After rebounding Nunez’ miss, Torres alertly shoveled to Casas underneath for a 42-36 lead after three. Surely there would be another Harlingen surge coming, because a loss at this stage would sink the Lady Cards into the danger zone, as they came into Friday’s fight just a game up on P-SJ-A for the fourth and final playoff spot from 31-5A.

And the hero of the comeback try was Danyella Rodriguez, a junior with some pop to her inside game. She had six points and four grabs off the glass as Harlingen crept closer, getting to within two at 44-42 after she converted two free throws.

But here, senior Victoria Ponce, playing well the last two weeks but not a factor Friday, made her only basket of the night to make the lead four. Who’s it gonna be? Trouble stirs the best in some kids, at the right time.

The Lady Cards kept churning, but missed a total of four easy tosses inside, bringing back nightmares of the team’s loss to Edinburg North earlier in the week.

“We couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn,” Zamarripa had moaned about the 54-42 home defeat. Friday’s close offered more of the same heartburn.

The closest they got was 48-44 late on a free throw from Demmie Rod. With Torres banging in her team’s last seven to end with 26, that was that. The third win in four tries for a team that faced the adversity of a major injury with moxie.

Garcia seemed fired up throughout, hopping on the good foot into team huddles during timeouts, without crutches. Before the game began, she’s smiled wanly when reminded that despite the surgery that ended her high school career, no one would be able to take away the hard work she put in for four seasons with the Lady Bobcats.

So they go on without her, knowing that they’re 12 points and 11 rebounds down before they start each game. Still, with the surprising baby Michellin, the suddenly multi-superb Torres, and a long tradition of winning, EHS cannot be counted out yet. Friday should remind one of that.

BY GREG SELBER

MCALLEN – Now there are no more maybes, no more what ifs. It’s a fact, Memorial blasted McAllen High Friday night and the Lady Mustangs (7-0) are now leading the pack in District 31-5A.

Using a precision high-low offensive scheme to slice and dice the Lady Bulldogs (6-1) with superior size and super passing, Coach Maritza Pedroza’s club hammered The Mac 37-24 Friday night, to win for the seventh straight time in 31-5A action, in front of a raucous home crowd ready for a rare win against a bitter rival.

The murmurs had been growing louder as of late. Despite having rebounded from an uncharacteristically slow start to take their first six league games, the Lady ‘Dogs were said to be vulnerable. Smaller than normal, less experienced than in the past, but with a ton of heart and a veteran coach who can work miracles. But still, the buzz was Memorial this week.

And the Lady Mustangs did nothing to dissuade observers of the notion that they are the favorite now to take the crown. In putting the clamps on McAllen and holding it to its worst output of the district slate (came in averaging 62 per game), Memorial flat dominated from start to finish.

McHigh had a few runs, but its foe was too big, too sharp, and too focused.

“We had a lot of expectations coming into this game,” said Pedroza afterward. “I think we played a great game, the guards were great and we got the ball to our big girls inside. I am really satisfied with our effort tonight.”

As well she should be, after the backcourt stable of Rebekkah Jimenez, Taylor Stanton and Vanessa Delgado played a whale of a ball game, running the show out front and turning up the defensive pressure after grabbing a quick lead. Delgado, in particular, was spectacular, feeding 6-foot Jennifer Kowalski inside and running circles around the McHigh guards all night.

The senior speedster transferred from McAllen way back when, but said that the rivalry game was just another day at the office.

“It was no big deal, just like playing any other team,” she smiled in the aftermath, and we almost believe her. “It is really awesome to beat McHigh like this, my adrenaline is still flowing, I think. Since I’ve been here, we have only beaten them once, last year, and then we turned around and lost to them the second game. This year, we need to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

It may not happen this year, especially if the Lady ‘Stangs follow the gameplan as well as they did Friday. With Kowalski and Katie Norman flashing to the middle and presenting well, the guards had good targets to find. They did a nice job of fighting through the Lady ‘Dog pressure to drop dimes from the start. Kowalski, a big, strong junior, scored eight points in the first quarter and had it not been for two long bombs from Joanna Reyes, Memorial would have been off and running for a rout.

But the lefty junior from The Mac came through with two threes to tie it at 10, the second coming near the buzzer to end the first. Still, Memorial was doing what it set out to do.

“Our plan was to pass inside to the posts and take advantage of our height,” said Delgado, an exquisite dribbler who can also drive and convert in traffic. “We wanted to get some easy shots down low to start the game.”

Delgado got plenty of help from Jimenez, a tiny sparkplug who plays five, count them five sports for the school. She is all hair out there with a nice shock of black curls flowing behind her as she puts cross-country skills to work. Jimenez, who cannot weigh 85 pounds with an Ipod on, has zero fear of penetrating and dishing the rock, and she showed her toughness early on with a killer pick at the free-throw line to free Delgado for a drive.

Later she would negotiate her way inside to grab an offensive board for a stickback in the second half. Jimenez can handle and she never gets tired, which is a must for Memorial, which played its five starters all the way against the Lady ‘Dogs.

“We usually do that in the tough games,” commented Delgado, averaging 13 points per game this year. “We use our bench when we get ahead.”

Pedroza agreed, saying that though the bench group is strong and totally supportive when not playing, she wants to get the best five out there.

“The object is to win, and we want to have our best out there,” said the coach. “If they are not injured or in foul trouble, they expect to never come out. When the other girls get their chance, they’re ready, though.”

Delgado stole one to start the second and passed for two assists as the home side assumed a 16-10 lead. Stanton, a hard-nosed character who will knock you down in a minute, contributed three baskets as the Lady ‘Stangs surged to a 21-13 lead, with Norman, one of the team’s leading rebounders, scoring five. Memorial led by 8 at the half but knew that the proud enemy would have at least one more run to make.

It came after the break, with the Lady ‘Dogs beating the pressure and getting into their patient halfcourt set. With Memorial seeming to drag a bit, on came The Mac, determined to turn the tide.

Rugged Janel Diaz helped the charge, as did Ashley Dube, another of the small but strong guards on Casso’s roster. Soon it was just 27-23 after Diaz found room underneath among the trees.

But from here McAllen turned it over twice, failing to narrow the gap from four, and Kowalski’s free throw made it 28-23 heading to the tape.

Delgado was the star of the show in the late going, with a number of fine defensive plays; she drove baseline left and ended up on the other side of the goal for a layup and a 34-23 lead, then pulled off a slide tackle on Dube, somehow avoiding the ref’s whistle.

It was all Memorial in the fourth as The Mac managed just one point, a free throw from Diaz, while Delgado scored seven herself. They put nine in a row on the board, and it was done.

It was a defensive effort that has become commonplace for the district leader; in the three games prior to Friday’s, the Baby Blue had allowed a total of 70 points. With their athletic guards and active frontline, the Lady Mustangs laid claim to the top spot, in the first game of a doubleheader played in a manic atmosphere.

“I think maybe we got a little comfortable after such a hot start,” Delgado admitted. “But then we knew we had to pick it up. This was a huge game for us, and it was tough. But we beat them and it feels awesome!”

BY GREG SELBER

Two for the price of one is hard to beat, and this year Valley hoops teams are doing their part to give the fans a double shot of excitement. As Edinburg traveled to Harlingen to take on South in the 31-5A Night of Nights, the crowd was packed in and ready for some action.

They got a hard-fought struggle in the first match, as the South boys matched EHS blow for blow and just missed a serious upset, falling 53-45 in a brawl that was much closer all the way.

The nightcap was ugly for the visiting Lady Bobcats, as they became the second Edinburg unit to get ran off the floor in 48 hours, being drubbed by the ferocious Lady Hawks 67-53. As closely contested as the first one was, this contest was no contest, with EHS loading up during garbage time to make it seem respectable. South (6-0 in league play) had pounded North unmercifully Saturday and did the same to EHS (5-1), establishing a 24-point lead after three with its killer press and trap.

Observers had expected the opposite from this meeting of the Valley’s best, but the South boys played a whale of a game to nip at the heels of the Bobcats throughout, closing to within one twice in the second half but never retaking the lead they’d last held at 10-9.

It was supposed to be a nip-and-tuck affair with the girls, but with junior post Ashley Bukowski all over the court (21 points, 13 boards), the Lady Hawks were never threatened, getting 18 from Josslyn Benavidez and 17 from Ariel Guevara in a surprising rout.

NECK AND NECK

Brian Molina’s Hawk contingent came in at .500 overall, against an Edinburg team that is looking for its fourth straight 31-5A crown. With high-flying Aaron Olvera, the ‘Cats had made mincemeat of the pack so far. But the inside strength of South, combined with a terrible shooting night from Olvera, averaging 21 ppg in 2009-10, set up a super second half which saw the ‘Cats hanging on and the Hawks coming on.

To begin, junior Phillip De la Rosa was the defensive spark for Edinburg (4-0 in 31-5A). He and underrated junior Cord Arriola each scored two baskets to give the team a lift. South countered with Rico Herrera, the sharp-elbowed senior who hits for 22 a night, to stand ground. When speedy Rajann Lassiter made a basket it was 10-9, Hawks, before Arriola’s layup gave the visitor a 1-point margin after one.

Herrera, who can shoot well from the perimeter when he’s not abusing defenders with a deceptive first step and hard rush to the goal, would notch 25 points with seven boards on the night, with teammates Danny Garcia and Wesley McCormick taking it to the Bobcats in the paint with a combined 19 rebounds.

With Olvera shooting 1 for 8 in the half, EHS turned to a trusted option in junior Stevie “Blue Eyes” Guerrero, who continued his hot play with 18 and 8, including seven markers in the second. Edinburg led 23-17 at the half, with the pace slow like the Hawks planned and the ‘Cats doing a bit of standing around as Olvera tried to get on track.

“It happens, even to the guys who make a million dollars to play this game,” said Guerrero of Olvera’s off night on which he scored 12 points but missed 14 shots from the field. “He found some other ways to be effective and that’s what we expect from him. You aren’t always going to be on, so then it becomes a matter of what will you do to be effective.”

Guerrero is the school’s football quarterback, a lanky 6-footer with a lot of ability in hoops. He agreed that for awhile there, his unit did not run the offense in the halfcourt well enough to pull away.

“We always look to run, and make things happen on the break,” he said. “Coach tells us to always get out fast. But when the game ended up being close, we started to run the sets and we got our baskets. South has a tough team inside. I wasn’t used to being surrounded by big guys underneath, they did a good job of coming to us tonight.”

Herrera picked up three fouls in the half, but he is a veteran who knows how to maintain his notorious aggressive streak and avoid the whistles. Edinburg extended to 27-19 early in the third as Olvera nailed a long three-pointer, but Herrera was equal to the challenge, getting 10 in the period as Molina’s Band hung around. When Garcia hooked in a lefty toss, it was just 32-31, but the Bobcats responded with another long one from Olvera. The junior guard ended the third with another two for a 39-35 advantage against a Hawk team that would just not go quietly.

Lassiter made a free throw to bring his team to within one at 41-40 in the fourth but the ‘Cats asserted themselves in the halfcourt game, with big lifts from Guerrero and junior post Marquis Holiday to take the game.

They both snared offensive boards on one possession, with Holiday getting a pair of free shots. Herrera came down and knocked in a pair but then Guerrero and Arriola forced a turnover and Olvera was fouled on the run-out, converting one of two charity throws.

On defense, Holiday, who has been out of the rotation for two weeks after a series of family issues, skied between two for a rebound that he tipped in mid-air to Olvera to avoid being sandwiched. Then he ran down to trail the play, grabbing a De la Rosa miss and making two free throws after being fouled.

Guerrero put a stamp on the narrow victory with a soaring board in traffic, and though he was poked in the eye inside the final minute, was all smiles at the buzzer.

“South is a good fundamental team and they played us hard all the way,” he admitted. “We didn’t panic when they stayed with us and we were able to pull it out.”

If the Hawks (3-1 in district) had gotten another scoring option rolling to go with Herrera – the only South player in double figures – it might have been a different story. Edinburg, which now looks to a battle against Edinburg North Friday, played just seven kids but all made key contributions.

“When they play together, they can beat anyone,” commented EHS Coach Zeke Cuellar. “With Aaron struggling, some other guys stepped up tonight, and though we didn’t play that well, really, we were there at the end. Aaron has got to understand that when he’s not playing well, it’s OK, we have other guys who can get the job done.”

BLOWOUT CITY

Now it was time for the long-awaited collision between the two teams who have dominated the district for years. But from the get-go, it was all South, as the Lady Hawks smothered the Lady ‘Cats with pressure, cut and passed well, and carved out a 12-2 lead without breaking a sweat.

Edinburg could not solve the press, throwing the ball away, failing to make proper catches, and looking totally flustered. Benavidez and Bukowksi combined for 13 points in a first period that ended with South ahead 18-8. Bianca Casas nailed a couple of shots for the visitor but EHS was in deep trouble.

Guevara, who had five in the early going, was particularly active on the defensive end, racing to and fro to confound Edinburg attempts to weather the storm. She added six points in the second with Bukowksi starting to score at will underneath. The 5-9 junior hasn’t gotten a lot of ink so far this year, but she deserved it Tuesday, exhibiting nice body control and a real passion for the boards. If she keeps this up, the size-challenged Lady Hawks will be an even tougher out in the playoffs.

It was 35-19 at the half after Anaka Garcia had six in the period for EHS and started to bring the ball upcourt with some success.

The closest EHS got was 37-27 at 4:53 of the third, as the team gutted up and began to calm down a bit. But Alyssa Romero came up with a big steal and quickly, South put the foe to bed, with Bukowski hammering away down low with six rebounds and the defense recovering from a lull.

EHS star Laura Torres, thoroughly frustrated during the first three periods, came alive late with 10 in the fourth, when her team outscored South 22-12. But by then it was all stat-keeping with the decision not in question.

BY GREG SELBER

Harlingen Legend

MCALLEN – Late in the game Wednesday night, zero suspense about the outcome. Down 25 against an impossibly talented foe, and still the drumbeat pulsing from the Harlingen bench.

“Keep working hard! Keep fighting, let’s GO!”

The finals of the Jostens Classic, with Navasota whipping the Lady Cards with superior quickness, strength, and size, nothing but the deadly best from a team that had advanced all the way to the Class 3A state Final Four last year. But still, the chanting came, now louder than ever.

“Hey, come on, here we go, work hard! Hard! Keep working…Ladies…let’s GO!” Clap, stomp, grimace.

Two minutes remained in the team’s one-sided loss to the East Texas powerhouse, but Nora Zamarripa didn’t care. She was teaching and coaching, planning for the near future, basketball-wise, and the distant one, life-wise.

As if on cue, gutty junior Ashley Adams, dead tired and about to drop, found another burst, diving onto the floor after a loose ball.

And right after that, ferocious offensive rebounds among the trees from subs Danyella Rodriguez and Lindsay Mendoza. The Navasota girls blinked, uncomprehending. What are they doing? We’re kicking their butts!

Right, but not. Not in the grand scheme of things, because the Lady Cards were two steps ahead of them. Not on the court, where it was total domination by an amazingly athletic team that is now 22-1 and headed to who knows where and how high. Maybe state again. But for down the road, when Harlingen is going to be battling for a District 31-5A crown, the girls will be glad they went through this.

When they could have quit, they instead summoned one last shred of energy. After an exhausting Jostens bracket through which they’d won four games in two days to reach the final, and after an emotionally draining last-second victory over Edinburg in the semis that very day, there seemed to be nothing left. Navasota had run roughshod over Harlingen, no two ways around it, blowing by the Lady Cards with frightening speed, ripping loose balls away with formidable power, and converting fast-break layups in bunches with breathtaking raw ability. The Lady Cards had looked like they were running in molasses with leg weights on; after leading 2-0 to start, they were never really in it.

So they should have just laid down and died in the waning moments. But with a Coach Z team, chances are nil for that. Nil.

“Keep it up, keep working! Get after it!”

The mantra continued until the final buzzer, until a truly tired team wearily trooped its way through the post-game din back to the bench. Zamarripa gathered up her things and accepted the trophy for second place. She was not happy outwardly, but deep in the recesses of that cat-quick brain and soul, it was celebration time.

Because Coach Z knew what her kids did not, not yet anyway. She intuited that their impressive display of heart with two minutes left, the pell-mell floorburns and the second- and third-efforts against an unbeatable foe, these were and are the keys to tomorrow’s kingdom. She’s been doing this long enough to see a teaching moment and jump on it with both feet. So 58-33 was the final, and no doubt of it. The Los Fresnos girls, having stayed behind after losing the third-place game, had packed it in at halftime, leaving the gym to go home with Harlingen down 17.

They should have stayed, because between the lines and below the surface, the underdogs were making a statement about what they’re all about, and about what they intend to accomplish before the season is done. Some junior college teams would have had trouble versus Navasota Wednesday, it was that strong.

But the Harlingen girls proved that they have been listening to the always intense and sometimes antagonistic (in the right way) coach, whose pedigree of winning basketball stretches back to when the world was young. Don’t worry, she’ll laugh at that historical aside.

“Learn, adjust, adapt, that’s what a team has to do, sometimes under difficult circumstances,” said the coach afterward. “Whatever the score, doesn’t matter, you just have to show that you will fight to the end. Giving up is not an option…well, it is, but just not one I will allow my teams to take.”

She noted that in the midst of the blowout, she never flinched. As usual.

“You have to take that life lesson, sometimes life kicks you around and there’s nothing you can do about it except keep working. Keep your focus and never give up. You’ll feel a lot better about yourself after you do it, even though at the time you may feel like giving in. But you just can’t do it, you cannot let yourself do it. That’s what it’s all about.”

It’s kind of like Germaine Greer and the feminist struggle for gender equity during the 1960s. The civil rights warriors would shake their heads and say, once again, to the males, “You just don’t get it,” meaning that the machismos out there had failed to understand the reality of their discrimination against women, subtle or otherwise.

With the Lady Cards, you either buy into the system or you don’t. The system is easy. Work your butt off, put the team first, and teach yourself to accept no excuses.

When the girls are finally able to police themselves, adjust their effort level and get back to no-holds-barred hustle…when they don’t need Coach Z to get into their face and do the adjusting for them, they will have arrived. They will have completed the ultimate task, one that goes beyond the wins and the losses and even past the cheers from the gallery. They will have squeezed the last drop out of the student-athlete experience, utilized the teaching and learning that the best programs offer up ahead of any personal glory or newspaper clippings. They will have become a Coach Z team. They’ll have gotten it.

Just like Ceci Becho, Jeanette Rodriguez and the gals did back in the early 1990s, that magical group of kids who showed they could take the constant pressure from their coach, the screaming and the killer workouts, the mind games and the psychological pounding from the original Old School mentor. Just like many of the Redbird units in Coach Z’s long and illustrious career. You either get it, or you don’t.  And if and when you do, it stays with you a lifetime. Just the way Nora Williams learned it, back in The Day.

AN INTERESTING PROP

Coach Z laughed quietly, and reached into her briefcase.

“I was at an all-state meeting the other day and I kept this in here, don’t ask why and don’t laugh, everyone was laughing at me,” she snickered, producing a tremendous piece of old-time ephemera. A game program from her senior year in high school, showing the Lyford Bulldogs as one of the combatants in the state tournament in Austin.

The year was 1974, and way before Hidalgo was even a school, Nora Zamarripa -  then known as Williams, eons before she would meet Doc Z and became Coach Z – was a hard-nosed, All-Valley guard for one of the greatest coaches ever, Mary Frances Watkins.

Little Lyford was 27-3 that year, making the state dance when Williams nailed a buzzer-beater against San Antonio Taft to send her mates beyond the regionals, to the rare air.

“We didn’t have three-pointers back then, but it was a three,” she smiled. “Believe me.” Earlier, Doc Z, the long-time Harlingen trainer whose real and unused name is actually, let’s see, um, oh yes…Raul Zamarripa, had shared some details of that fantastic run to the roses.

“She had missed a shot just like that the year before at regionals, and was determined to get a second chance,” he explained. “She never gave up working hard to try and get back to that point, and she did it. That’s what Nora is all about.”

Ah so, it comes clear now. Been there, done that, with a twist. A coach can cajole her players, work them into the ground, and demand excellence. But if they do not buy into her system, into her very essence, it won’t work. And today’s kids are smarter than the average bear, so they know instantly when someone is full of it. If the leader has walked the walk, it shows. Or not.

Ashley Adams is much too frail to be a basketball player, it seems. She is cute and tiny, and, oh, mean as a snake, by the way. She had just spent a torturous night trying to keep up with the greyhounds from Navasota, scoring 11 points but getting knocked around like a rag doll for her effort.

“We were a little intimidated at the beginning, I admit,” she began. “We knew it would be hard work, they’re so athletic, fast, strong, everything. The hardest part was mental, playing from way behind like that. But we decided that we’d pulled through against Hidalgo and Edinburg, so we had to keep on trying.”

Earlier in the 22-team Jostens, the Lady Cards had indeed pulled the upset over the Lady Pirates, the closest thing to Navasota the Valley has to offer. That thrilling Tuesday win sent shockwaves through the area, and it got even better Wednesday when Harlingen rallied from 16 down to nip the Lady Bobcats of EHS by a point on sophomore Bianka Martinez’ three-pointer at the tape. Adams had led the way with 19 points in that crazy comeback, tossing in threes from all angles and hitting the deck every other play to try for the steal. A Coach Z original, circa 2009.

“We knew we could do it against Edinburg even though we didn’t play well in the first half,” said the guard whose twin sister, Megan, is also a key contributor for a coming quintet that starts zero seniors. None. “We wanted to prove to everyone that we had the heart to come back and then tonight, we were just trying to show that we weren’t going to quit.”

Coach Z’s blaring voice bouncing around the gym was hard to ignore. Right?

“We are used to coach, we’re used to that,” Adams grinned. “She just knows what we can do and she wants us to do it, every second we are out there. She’s a good coach and we listen to her. We play with heart and we take what she says and we act on it.”

If anyone exemplifies what Coach Z is doing and has been doing for 25 years, it’s the diminutive Adams, who may not be big or particularly fast, but brings her lunch pail to the gym every day. Faced with an imposing challenge in the Lady Rattlers, she just went to work. They all did. Though it took awhile.

“Actually, we didn’t do much early, and they just ran right past us,” said the coach, still holding the trophy and the ancient program. “We woke up too late, but we woke up, and that’s what counts. It took us some time to find it, and just start playing. Against a team like that, we were intimidated, it was obvious. But when we just settled down, we were able to accomplish what there was to do. And that was work.”

TIDINGS FOR THE FUTURE

Not much left on a Wednesday night, Navasota corralling the title hardware and whooping it up, a well-earned party. It was a fantastic performance by a great basketball team. When Lady Rattler coach Tommy Gates had complained about what he considered a phantom traveling call in the first half, he’d earned points for bluntness if not tact.

“That’s just a quick first step, ref, you ain’t seen a lot of them around here, I bet,” he deadpanned, as the official glanced at him out of the corner of an eye.

And there is no maybe, Navasota was the better team and took the fight to the Lady Cardinals from the outset. But after a few jitters and the understandable wide eyes a team gets when it’s in against a marauding opponent, the Redbirds began to heed the plaintive and hammering demands from their leader.

“Let’s go, ladies! Work hard, keep fighting…Go!!”

The words may seem to blend into one endless exhortation sometimes, and fatigue tends to rob the athlete of their energy, skill, and most vitally, concentration when the sweat glands can produce no more. But if they’ve done the long-term heavy lifting, the backbreaking labor both mental and physical, they may not be able to overcome the night’s obstacle, as far as the scoreboard will relate, but they will leave the court knowing that the best of them still lies out there for all to see. They will know that they’ve met the Coach Z Test, and that knowledge of how to master oneself and one’s weariness will stay with them infinitely longer than any yellowed news clipping trumpeting wins and losses, points and rebounds.

It ain’t a game for Nora Williams-cum-Zamarripa. It’s a way of life, the singular, unadulterated path to take, and she’s been guiding the willing down that road for more years than we can count. Admittedly there are some folks who cannot cotton to her brand of old-fashioned elbow grease, a product that comes with its share of yelling and vitriol. In the past, some hypersensitive locals have tried and failed to run her out of town for being, well, too hard on the girls.

Coach Z is still there, doing her thing, and the naysayers are long gone. They should have known better. As the feminists intoned time and time again in the face of prejudice and male inability to come up to scratch: “You just don’t get it.”

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.

BY GREG SELBER

DISTRICT 30-5A

Hidalgo Basketball

This has been quite a learning experience for veteran coach Teresa Casso and her McAllen Lady Bulldogs so far. The team came into the Border Bash over the weekend with a sub-.500 record for the first time in light-years, but Casso noted that tough road trips to Dripping Springs and Houston for tournaments will help.

“That’s what you have to do, get up there and play against the best to see where you stand,” said the RGV Sports Hall of Famer, and it appears to be working, as the Lady ‘Dogs held their own at the Bash with four wins.

The Mac was picked third in the Valley by the members of the RGV Coaches Association before the campaign began, with Memorial fourth. And the Lady Mustangs have shown no ill effects despite heavy graduation losses like their rival.

Memorial is off to an 11-5 start with losses against top clubs, including a surprising P-SJ-A unit, Edinburg, Mission Vets, and Harlingen South. With stout Jen Kowalski in the middle plus Vanessa Delgado and Taylor Stanton joining her in the mix, the Lady Mustangs are looking solid so far.

With All-Valley volleyball MVP Brittany Best scoring a girls’ single-game high of 43 points a few weeks back, McAllen Rowe can score with anyone. The Lady Warriors defeated Harlingen 66-62 that night, and will look to compete with its city rivals for the crown in 30-5A. Best is a beast, plain and simple.

Do not count out Sharyland, because that team is much improved after a down year in 2008-09. The Lady Rattlers get fierce inside play from Chelsea Cole (20 against Porter, 18 versus Hidalgo), grit and hustle from Bethany Thompson (20 against Hidalgo) plus some exciting long bombs from freshman Ciaira Briseno, who pumped in five treys against Edinburg North and scored 20 in a win over Lopez.

That’s the big 4 in this league, with the rest of the pack seeking to regain momentum after slow starts. Kassandra Lopez of Palmview put in 22 points against Pharr North as the Lady Lobos look to get the hang of things in this traditionally tough league. Rio’s Rosie Solis popped in 27 against P-SJ-A Memorial.

DISTRICT 31-5A

While Harlingen South lost Bianca Torre to UTPA, the Lady Hawks still have “Jumpin’ Josslyn” Benavidez and a supporting cast headed by Miranda Garcia that is ready to step out of the shadows. Despite a weekend loss to Los Fresnos (it beat the Lady Falcons twice earlier), South appears to be one of the faves once again in this deep and balanced loop. It has beaten McAllen, Memorial, Rowe and Hanna so far, among other conquests, and also bested Corpus Christi Carroll.

Edinburg lost as much to graduation as South, but has weathered some stormy seas of late to solidify its season. The Lady Bobcats lost a pair of close matches at the Alice Tourney over the weekend, splitting four at that competitive event. Defense is the team strength this year, with gutty Laura Torres leading the charge. Anaka Garcia is doing very well as a senior post so far, and EHS should be right there at the wire.

The same might be said for Edinburg North, which broke through to the playoffs last year and has most of that cast back in action. All-Valley volleyballer Brandy Garcia has been a fine player for four years and she has plenty of help in super ballhandler Essence Brown, slick point guard Dani Vargas (24 points vs. Lopez) and streak-scoring soph Vicky Pena. The Lady Coogs beat Sharyland to start the year and then made a great showing at the Border Bash with a series of wins; they were picked seventh in the area to start the season, with EHS sixth and South at, um, one.

That trio expects to rule the roost this year but it had better keep an eye on P-SJ-A, because Coach Iris Garza has a potential powerhouse this time out. Maya Gray made the All-Tourney team up at Alice, and the Lady Bears have some talented kids to go with that all-sport star. Lisa Mancias put in 21 points against La Joya in November while teammate Marlena Bustamante has been a consistent scorer too (22 in a win at Pace). The Lady Bears are 11-3 right now and are particularly nasty on D, allowing just over 40 points a night.

Harlingen started fast with Demmie Rodriguez (two 20-point nights) and the junior-level Adams Twins, Ashley and Megan, but has hit a wall lately. Still, the Lady Cards came in at No. 10 in the preseason rankings, and will be heard from eventually, one imagines.

While P-SJ-A Memorial might have a hard time pushing into the playoffs, the roster includes one of the shooting stars of the fall so far in Bianca DeHoyos. The Lady Wolverine leader fired in 38 against Rio Grande City, 33 versus Donna, and burned La Joya for 25; she is hard to stop with a quick release and shows no hesitation in letting it fly from all angles.

North and Econ have taken their licks so far, but each program has experienced playoff time in recent years, so they cannot be counted out in the least at this nascent stage.

DISTRICT 30-5A

This is a tough league to figure, as most of the teams have struggled against other 5A clubs so far. But expect Los Fresnos, with high-scoring Ashley Benavides (26 against Mercedes) to come on strong. The Lady Falcons have to be feeling good about their win over South at the Border Bash.

Weslaco was picked fifth in the Valley this season with Los Fresnos eighth, but the Pantherettes received a devastating blow when all-star Kimberly Armstrong tore up a knee in a scrimmage; she is done for the year, sadly, leaving the bulk of the offensive chores to seasoned post Alex Rocha. She had 19 points and 11 rebounds in a close loss to EHS early, and that squad has a lot of moxie; enough to come back from the injury to Armstrong? We shall see.

As for the rest of the pack, San Benito has been hovering at .500 but the Lady Greyhounds scored an impressive three victories at the Border Bash. They can claim wins over Weslaco and 3A power La Feria to date.

In Brownsville, Hanna got out of the gate in a hurry with five wins in six tries, but like Harlingen has slowed a bit. City mate Lopez can trot out Celina Garcia every game, and she has scored well in 2009-10, with 28 in a win over La Feria and 23 against Lyford.

LOWER CLASSIFICATIONS

It’s been feast or famine for perennially tough Mission so far, as the Lady Eagles have chalked up a 6-game winning streak but an equally dismal losing skein lately. They will battle with Mission Vets (11-3 in a great beginning) along with Weslaco East and a few others this season.

Vets has lost to Laredo Alexander, Hidalgo, and Edinburg North but other than that, has been really together. East has been having trouble the past two weeks but should be able to right the ship, after narrow defeats to Port Lavaca Calhoun (by 5) and San Benny (2) to close the McAllen action over the weekend. Amy Trevino is one to watch for the Lady Pats, as she battled Hidalgo to the tune of 23 points.

In 3A, the Lady Pirates are the Lady Pirates and that means excellence. Hidalgo is 10-1 after advancing to the title game of the Border Bash before losing to CC King by 3. Depth may be a problem, but talent is not, as junior whirlwind Neshae Owens exploded for 41 points in a 6-point surprise win in the semis over highly touted Cedar Park. The starting five is as good as it gets, and Hidalgo is the odds-on favorite to take 32-3A once again.

La Feria, with long-time multi-sport queen Hannah Wolf, will be there as always to fight it out with Hidalgo; the Lionettes won three at the Bash and have defeated Pharr North, Pace, and San Antonio Jefferson to show they are set to compete.

Both Lyford and Raymondville have had their moments in the young season, with the Lady ‘Kats especially seeming ready to shine, after four wins over Class 5A teams and one over usually strong 4A outfit Roma.

Of the rest of the lower-level squads, count on St. Joe to be a tough customer, with Sam Garcia (25 versus Mercedes) leading the charge. Diamond Caballero is back for another go at it with Santa Rosa; she can flat fill it up and aided upsets win over San Benito and Porter in November.