HARLINGEN — Harlingen High shook off a nervy start against Edinburg North to pick up a blowout win Tuesday night in a bi-district playoff meeting.
The Cardinals only scored nine points in the opening quarter, but followed it up with 60 in the following three quarters to win 69-27 in a meeting between the No. 2 seed from District 32-6A and No. 3 seed from District 31-6A.
Harlingen High, District 32-6A’s runner-up, came in the playoffs riding a four game winning streak to finish 7-3 in district after a challenging non-district season.
“We grew up a lot,” Cardinals head coach Ashley Moncivaiz said. “Because of our team’s experience a lot of people did not expect us to be here, but one of the things we harped on was that we played a lot of tough teams in the preseason to prepare us for this.”
Not much was falling but when they did, the flood gates opened.
Harlingen High’s Carlie Martinez drained three quick 3-pointers to open the second quarter and just like that the Cardinals were up 20-6 and never looked back.
“It was mostly my teammates spreading the floor and passing me the ball to get me open,” Martinez said about her opening quarter run.
Harlingen High outscored Edinburg North 28-4 in the second quarter by pressing hard, outrebounding the Cougars and finishing easy chances.
Martinez finished with a game-high 16 points. Eleven different Cardinals scored a basket – Sarah Sanusi had eight points, Abigail Garcia had seven, while Amber Hinojosa, Briana Castro, Haiden Martinez, Lola Tamez and Miranda Garza all had six points.
Edinburg North’s Alejandra Zurita led her team in scoring with seven points.
“I think we played really well,” Moncivaiz said. “We played as a team, came out here and when we finally got in a groove we started playing the way we needed to play.”
Harlingen High will face San Antonio Brennan in the area round.
McAllen Rowe 36, Harlingen South 30
McAllen Rowe head coach Alejandro Robles admitted to being nervous before the Warriors bi-district meeting with Harlingen South in Harlingen.
The Warriors, the No. 3 seed fromDistrict 31-5A, lacked some experience in the playoffs Robles said, but his team came out on top tonight against a strong Harlingen South team 36-30.
“They stuck together,” Robles said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game playing here after having been blessed with the last three bi-district games, I believe, at home. It was a good test for us to see what we were made of on the road.”
Robles singled out Alyssa Cantu and Silah Flores on his team with the most playoff experience and they came up clutch late for the Warriors.
With the Hawks mounting a late comeback Cantu, Flores and Fernanda and Valentina Saldivar hit clutch shots for the Warriors.
Flores said she was nervous going up for a layup with the game on the line, but she finished strong.
“We deserved the win,” Flores said. “We have been working hard and we just played our game.”
Cantu finished with 16 and Flores had eight. Cantu hit two important 3-pointers in the third quarter with the game tight.
“We played well overall as a team, not individually,” Cantu said. “We work better together.”
Harlingen South was led in scoring by Jiselle Montemayor who finished with 11 and Serena Cano who had nine points.
McAllen Rowe faces either Flour Bluff or Laredo Martin in the area round.
