DONNA — The McAllen Memorial Mustangs held a close lead over the Donna High Bravettes for the first three quarters of their Class 5A bi-district playoff matchup Friday night.
Once the fourth quarter rolled around, however, the Mustangs (16-8, 10-4) used strong play in the paint to separate themselves from Donna for a 64-51 first-round playoff victory.
“I thought my girls were going to come out and fight hard and come out victorious,” Memorial head coach Clarisse Arredondo said. “We had a little hiccup here and there. We started off fast, then we kinda slowed down in the second quarter. In the second half, my girls turned it up and I’m just really proud of them.”
The Mustangs entered the matchup with the size advantage and that’s precisely where Memorial hurt Donna late in the game. Junior posts Iasia Goldman and Anna Heikes combined to score 15 fourth-quarter points for the Mustangs.
“I told my guards we need to look inside, hit the high post and look inside for those easy buckets because we weren’t really utilizing our height a lot. They really did a good job in the fourth quarter for us,” Arredondo said.
The opening three quarters began as a duel between point guards in Memorial’s Cori Talamantez and Donna’s Ivette Valladares. Talamantez finished with a game-high 22 points to lead the Mustangs, while Valladares poured in 20 points to lead Donna.
Memorial’s bigs then closed the show by stymieing Donna down low. Goldman was a force on both ends with 16 points, 12 rebounds, six blocks, four steals and two assists. Heikes added 13 points and six rebounds.
“Defensively, she’s (Goldman) a huge presence inside for us. She averages about four blocks a game and we outsized Donna today,” Arredondo said. “She really did a good job for us with their bigs and against anybody who was penetrating.”
Donna’s Emily Jones finished with 10 points, and Alyssa Perez contributed across the board with six points, seven rebounds, three steals and two assists.
Next for McAllen Memorial is an area-round matchup against Flour Bluff.
“We need to keep working hard in practice and play together as a team. I think at the end there, we played really well as a team together,” Arredondo said.
Time, date and location are to be determined for the Mustangs’ area-round game. The Hornets advanced to the second round by beating Rio Grande City 31-22 in their bi-district matchup Friday at Falfurrias High School.
