LA FERIA — It was all business from start to finish for the La Feria Lionettes on Friday night as they routed Port Isabel 79-18 at La Feria High School.
The Lionettes pounced early by starting with a 12-0 run and eventually ended the first quarter up 25-2. All five starters for La Feria grabbed buckets during the first quarter.
“Our team started with intensity, and that is one thing I was focusing on when I was talking to them,” La Feria head coach Delia Lopez said. “They had it in their mind that they were going to come in and half-court press. Everybody knew what they were going to do on defense, it was good.”
La Feria never let up. The Lionettes went into the half up 41-6 as they hit 3-pointers and tear drops, and shut down Port Isabel.
La Feria sophomore Alesandra Torres finished with a game-high 30 points, and senior post Alena Benjamin had 19 points and multiple crowd-pleasing blocks.
“It feels good to come up with some of those blocks,” Benjamin said. “We did what he had to do on defense.”
La Feria junior point guard Rianna Gonzalez dropped eight points and had numerous good passes for teammates, and Danyelle Saldivar, a junior, finished with 13 points.
Torres hit four second-half 3-pointers, including a banked-in buzzer-beater to give the Lionettes a 59-10 lead.
“I started off pretty slow, but got the hang of it in the second half,” Torres said. “It felt good, we played really good together.”
La Feria is now 6-1 in District 32-4A and Port Isabel is 3-3 after Friday night.
