LOS FRESNOS — Harlingen South’s Laura Ramirez set the tone for the Lady Hawks when she drilled a 3-pointer for the first basket of the game.
It was all green and orange from that point on, as the visitors took down Los Fresnos 46-34 on Friday night in their District 32-6A opener.
“We brought a lot of energy tonight,” Harlingen South coach Kelly Garrett said. “Our goal was to be 1-0 after tonight, and that’s what we did.”
The Lady Hawks opened the game on a 7-0 run during the first two and a half minutes of play, which quickly became 9-0 when Alexes Rocha (11 points) knocked down a wide-open 10-footer to prompt Los Fresnos coach Rebecca Valdez to call timeout at the 4:41 mark.
“(Rocha) did a great job,” Garrett said. “She kept her composure, penetrated (the defense), got to the basket. She didn’t force much. She did a really good job keeping her composure.”
Harlingen South relied on balanced scoring from Ramirez, one of three Lady Hawks to score seven points alongside Julia Celis and Allyah Guevara. Guevera and Karla Reyes (eight points) both made a 3.
“We don’t have a main scorer, really,” Garrett said. “Everyone has to do their job, and if we do our job hopefully someone is eventually going to be open.”
Ramirez banked in a triple on the Lady Hawks’ first possession following the timeout and put Harlingen South ahead 12-2 with less than four minutes to play in the period.
The Lady Hawks led 15-4 at the end of the first quarter. Both teams failed to score again until the 5-minute mark of the second quarter.
“We were able to jump on them, and that (early) lead really helped us,” Garrett said. “We were able to maintain it, but we kind of let them in the game again towards the end a little bit.”
Celis drew a hard foul on a made layup and swished the free throw to give Harlingen South a 22-7 advantage with 4:14 to go in the second quarter.
Most of Los Fresnos’ wounds were self-inflicted, as the Lady Falcons committed turnovers in their defensive half and often gave the ball away on the other end when they were just short of finding an open teammate for a good look.
The Lady Hawks led 27-13 at the half.
Reyes hit a floater for South that made it 31-13 with six minutes to play in the third quarter. The Lady Falcons trailed 36-21 at the end of the quarter.
Los Fresnos’ Ari Gallardo (10 points) found Victoria Hernandez for an easy layup under the basket to cut the deficit to 11 points with 6:35 to go in the fourth quarter.
Sarahi Jones had nine points, and Clarissa Esquibel had six points for the Lady Falcons.
Following a timeout by Garrett, the Lady Hawks swung the ball around the arc for Guevara, who sank an open triple to make the score 39-28 in favor of the visitors.
Hernandez split a pair of free throws to cut the Harlingen South lead to nine with four and a half minutes to play.
Gallardo stole the ball from Amber Lopez (five points) and finished with a layup to trim the deficit to eight, but Lopez answered at the other end with a basket to put Harlingen South back in control, up 42-32 with 1:58 to go.
