Mikayla Garcia and the San Benito Lady Greyhounds continued to rise to the occasion and grinded out key wins against tough District 32-6A opponents this past week.
Against the Weslaco Lady Panthers last week, Garcia put up a game high 13 points, 10 rebounds, two steals, two assists and three deflections. She followed that up with another impressive outing with a clutch 14-point performance against Harlingen on Tuesday. In the victory, Garcia pulled down 13 rebounds, three steals, four assists and four deflections as the win against the Lady Cardinals helped the Lady Hounds secure a share of the 32-6A title – the program’s first since 2011.
For her tremendous effort, Garcia is this week’s Valley Morning Star female Player of the Week.
“Mikayla is what I call an X-factor girl,” said San Benito head coach AbelMoreno. “She isn’t the most skilled basketball player nor is she the most athletic, but she has tons of guts and she isn’t afraid to make mistakes because she wants to take the hard shots. She is basically the Draymond Green of the team because she wants to take on the best player on the opponent’s team.
“She is also an X-factor because you may not always love everything she does on the court, but you can’t win games without her. Sometimes I’m like, ‘what the heck was that move or that play,’ but she always comes back and makes the hardest basket or the play on defense.”
Garcia’s most notable basket this season came against Weslaco when she nailed a 3-point buzzer beater to defeat the Lady Panthers 49-46.
The Lady Hounds host Edinburg Vela in the bi-district round of the playoffs at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
