LYFORD — Lyford’s Heather May led the Bulldogs with 16 points and celebrated 1,000 career rebounds, while Kariali Martinez had 11 points and Brianna Garcia scored eight points for the Bulldogs in a 43-37 over Rio Hondo Tuesday night.
The Lyford win snaps a 53-game district winning streak that lasted four years, two days and also ties the two teams atop District 32-3A with two games remaining in the season.
Bulldogs head coach Teresa Gutierrez said her team had plenty of distractions with it being senior night, and extra media attention because of it being an important game. Gutierrez said it was huge for her team to be able to fight those distractions to pick up the win, especially as the playoffs loom.
“We did good, they threw everything at us,” Gutierrez said. “They ran a 3-2, man, and we were able to counteract whatever they threw at us. Our end of the game management is not what I wanted, but we still have some time to work on that.”
The Bulldogs led by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter, but the Bobcats went on a late run to make it interesting.
It was Lyford’s run late in the third quarter that afforded them wiggle room late. The Bulldogs went on a 13-0 run that stretched into the fourth after the game was tied 25-25.
“We always tell them it is a game of runs, and we hadn’t had ours yet,” Gutierrez said. “We were waiting for it to happen and on the contrary, after ours – I told them at our last timeout to expect them to have theirs because they need to change the pace.”
Rio Hondo’s Emily Molina finished with a team-high 16 points, Abby Atkinson had 13 and Hadassah Campbell chipped in with six points.
The Bobcats had a great second quarter after going down early. Rio Hondo outscored Lyford 20-8 after doing down 9-0 when May and Martinez started strong for the Bulldogs.
“We have been waiting for this, we worked super hard and I truly believe we had them in them in the first round, it was upsetting, but this makes it more special,” May said.
May was proud of her defensive performances and being able to reach 1,000 rebounds.
“My sister taught me how to rebound, and that and seeing myself grow from freshman to senior year has been good,” May said.
