CORPUS CHRISTI — Nadia Flores scored 19 points and Taegan Dickey added another eight on the night, but it wasn’t enough as the Harlingen Lady Cardinals fell to the 18th ranked Laredo Alexander Lady Bulldogs 66-42 in their Class 6A area-round matchup Friday evening at Carroll High School.
The win was the seventh consecutive area-round win for the Lady Bulldogs, who now face a familiar opponent in South San Antonio in the third round.
Harlingen brought the score to within two points for a second, before Laredo Alexander hit the gas pedal and raced past the Lady Cards.
With three seconds remaining before the half, Flores pulled up and drilled a three pointer, capping a 10-3 run by the Lady Cards. But in the second half, everything went from promising to unfavorable quickly.
The Lady Bulldogs exploded on a 14-3 run after the break to push the score to 43-30. A three pointer by Flores and a three-point play by Alyssa Cervantes was the only response from the Lady Cardinals in the third period as Laredo began to pull away.
Harlingen scored 12 points in the first period and 18 points in the second, but only managed to score 15 points in the entire second half as Harlingen’s shots kept falling short.
“In the second half we couldn’t find anybody else to contribute and score,” said Harlingen head coach Ashley Moncivaiz. “We had turnovers and too many missed, and when they (Alexander) pushed the ball they were able to go and finish. That’s one of the reasons our second half wasn’t as good because they were finishing on the other end and our shots weren’t falling, and they were able to make a run.”
Flores scored 16 of her team-high 19 points in the first half and was the only Harlingen player in double digits. Andrea Cortez was held to two points while other regulars like Cervantes and Julie Ann Garza had four points each.
However, despite the negative result, there was one promising and positive outlook for the Lady Red Birds.
“I get them all back,” said Moncivaiez of her team. “I get 11 returning (players). They’re sophomores and they are young, and one of the things is that they still had heart today. Today we lost by 20, but I know what we have to work on so we have all this time to work on it for next year.”
