Full Nelson

McALLEN — Playing with the poise of a veteran, McAllen Rowe freshman forward Brittanie Nelson knocked in a basket with one second remaining in the game to propel the Lady Warriors to an important District 30-5A win over Donna.

Nelson took an inbounds pass from junior point guard Amanda Skaggs and released a shot that needed a bounce to go in, giving Rowe a 30-29 victory Friday at Rowe.

“In the last seconds, you get a big rush but coach (Raul Vega) told us what to do,” Nelson said. “We just listened to him and did what we needed to do.”

A Donna (12-12, 5-5) win would have all but secured a playoff spot for the Bravettes, who beat the Lady Warriors (12-14, 4-5) during the first round of league games. The Bravettes entered the game 1 1/2 games better than the Lady Warriors, but now the former holds a slim 1/2 game lead for the fourth and final playoff spot from District 30-5A.

“We needed to win this game,” Lady Warriors coach Vega said. “If we would have lost this game, we would have had to make up three games on Donna because they would have held the tie breaker. Realistically, it would have been tough.”

Rowe was able to avoid the bleak outlook thanks in part to Nelson (11 points), who scored nine of the Lady Warriors’ 10 points in the final quarter. She was 4 -for-5 in the fourth period, including a 3 -pointer on a dish from Skaggs that put Rowe up 22-21 with 7:30 to go in the game.

“As a freshman, she is our leading scorer,” Vega said. “That says a lot about her and what she means to our team.”

Skaggs recorded four assists in the final, quarter, finding Monica Guerrero for layup that pushed Rowe’s lead to 24-21. No one lead by more than four points during the game.

After a Donna free throw, Skaggs found Nelson again for a basket and a 26-22 lead. Donna cut the lead to 26-24 after Skaggs tried to save a ball from falling out of bounds but it landed in the hands of Bravettes guard Rebecka Rodriguez, who had no trouble knocking down the jump shot down with 2:31 remaining. Rodriguez led Donna with 8 points.

After another Nelson basket and two Donna free throws. Bravettes Guard Isela Garcia knocked down a 3 at the top of the key to give Donna a 29-28 edge with 27.7 seconds to go.

Both teams struggled to hang on to the ball for the next 14 seconds until Skaggs was able to take an inbounds the length of the court but missed a layup. As Lady Warriors post Cindy Peña, who scored all six of Rowe’s points in the third quarter off of offensive rebounds, went up for the rebound she was fouled by Donna’s Amanda Guerrero with 4.7 seconds left, giving Rowe the ball under the basket and setting up Nelson’s game winner.

“We let (Nelson) get that one,” said Luis Guardiola, who needed a few seconds after the game to comprehend the tough loss. “She shot the ball and got the bounce.”

Peter Rasmussen covers girls basketball for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4448.