The Mustangs came into the night on a five-game win streak and were hoping to improve on their fourth-place seeding with only a handful of games left. McAllen Memorial pushed Sharyland Pioneer after going down early to create a tense finish.
“We held our composure,” Sharyland Pioneer head coach Nicole Villarreal-Sandoval said. “We did what we needed to do to secure the ‘W.’”
Sharyland Pioneer and McAllen Memorial entered the fourth quarter tied at 29. It was the Diamondbacks who hit the important shots early in the quarter to build a six-point lead.
Diamondbacks junior point guard Kassandra Garcia started the quarter with a 3-pointer.
“It felt really good. We actually needed it to put us in the lead because they were catching up and they came at us wanting to ruin our No. 1 spot, and we came back as much as we could,” said Garcia, who had a team-high 13 points.
Valarie Vela, who hit the next 3-pointer to give the Diamondbacks a 35-29 lead, finished with nine points, and center Anika Fleischmann scored eight.
Fleischmann also scored a pivotal fourth-quarter bucket and was up and down the court offensively and defensively, making plays for the Diamondbacks.
“My coaches always tell me to be more aggressive on offense, but I don’t like hitting people,” Fleischmann said. “Tonight, I really tried to work on that specifically.”
Villarreal-Sandoval praised Fleischmann as well as Vela, Garcia and freshman Ebonie Chatman.
Chatman, the Diamondbacks’ leading scorer so far this season, was “face-guarded,” Villarreal-Sandoval said. Chatman finished with three points, but had a bucket in the fourth.
“She is learning as a freshman to try and find other ways to be part of the team, and I think it is going to make her better in the long run because she is a learner of the game,” Villarreal-Sandoval.
McAllen Memorial was down 17-6 after the first quarter but chipped away at the lead with tight defense and a game-high 15 points from point guard Madison Borjas.
The Mustangs picked up six points from Ann Mabadeje, Eva Villarreal and Karly Bazan to complement Borjas’ 15 points.
The loss for the Mustangs all but seals their fate in playoff seeding. McAllen Memorial needed a win and a McAllen Rowe loss, which happened, to move a game behind the Warriors with four games and a meeting coming up between the two.
The gap stays two games between the fourth-seeded McAllen Memorial and third-seeded McAllen Rowe, but the Warriors do have their more challenging final four games.
Sharyland Pioneer is still in first in District 31-5A with a 13-1 record but is only a game up on Edinburg Vela, 12-2, after the SaberCats defeated the Warriors 45-33 on Tuesday night.
Vela and Pioneer are scheduled to meet Feb. 2.
“We are still going to have to fight every day to keep the top spot,” Villarreal-Sandoval said. “It is maintaining our focus throughout our practices and keeping our g... Click here to read full article
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