In the process, they avenge last season's playoff loss to Huskies It wasn't quite sweet revenge for the Ray High School girls basketball team against San Antonio Holmes Thursday night, but the Texans did beat the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last season. Ray held the Huskies to four points in the fourth quarter and rallied from a 10-point first-half deficit en route to a 54-48 victory in the opening round of the CCISD Texas Riviera Roundup tournament at Ray High School. The Texans (2-0) advance to today's 2:30 p.
m. quarterfinal game against defending District 31-4A champion and Region IV-4A semifinalist Calallen at King High School. The Wildcats defeated Miller Thursday, while King beat Austin Bowie and No.
10 Carroll also had a big win in the first round of the tournament. Despite playing without injured starting point guard Liz McCampbell and losing their leading scorer from last year, senior guard Alex Salinas, to foul trouble early in the fourth quarter, the Texans still managed to post the comeback victory. "We wanted this game really bad - we talked about it all week," said Ray senior guard Gabi Bradshaw, who along with Salinas had 11 points in the game.
"Coach (Roy De La Pena) told the seniors at halftime that we were going to have to dig deep to pull (this game out), and that's what we did." "This was a big win for us, but it wasn't really about getting revenge," a smiling De La Pena said afterward. "Corpus Christi schools tend to lose when we play the San Antonio schools, so we wanted to play them early and see what we could do.
" Post Desiree Williams certainly showed what she can do, as the 5-foot-10 sophomore led the Texans with 12 points and 18 rebounds, while junior forward Caroline Perry also added 14 rebounds and seven points for Ray. Like Salinas, Texans senior post Margaret Clemons ran into first-half foul trouble, but she scored all six of her points during Ray's decisive second-half run. The Texans outscored the Huskies 16-4 in the fourth quarter to complete the comeback.
"We had three key players in foul trouble in the second half, including two starters that fouled out, but that didn't lose the game for us - we lost this game," Huskies coach Stacy Conway said. "We just had a lack of execution on offense and defense (in the second half)." The Huskies - who knocked the Texans out of the playoffs this past season, 55-39 in the Class 5A bi-district round - earlier built a 10 point second-quarter lead before the Texans used a 12-4 run to pull to within 24-22 by halftime.
Ray then opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run to take a 29-24 lead. Williams' layup started the run, before Perry's blocked shot and defensive rebound led to Salinas' 3-point play the other way. Bradshaw's jumper capped the spurt for the Texans, but it was short-lived, as the Huskies used three straight 3-pointers by Acuna to reclaim the lead 33-29.
Holmes extended its lead to 45-40 early in the fourth quarter, before Ray responded with a 13-1 run to take a 53-46 lead with a little more than two minutes remaining in the game. Ray senior post Margaret Clemons was 6 for 6 from the free throw line during the run, including a free throw with 5:49 remaining in the fourth quarter to give the Texans the lead for good. Junior guard Lauren Davila made one of her two 3-pointers on the night during Ray's 32 point second-half effort, while freshman guard Elizabeth Gallardo contributed a key steal and free throw in the final minutes to preserve the victory.
"We have a lot of confidence in all of our players and we tell them all the time that when they're in the game - it's their turn to shine," De La Pena said. De La Pena said McCampbell could be back practicing for Ray again this week, although she'll start with the junior varsity and then work her way back to varsity. McCampbell is coming off of knee surgery, and De La Pena said that she will be able to practice again once she gets a knee brace.
News RSS