Lady Hawks fall short of regional final

The last Class 5A Rio Grande Valley girls basketball team standing didn't go down without a fight.

Harlingen South stayed with Pflugerville, but sophomore Nneka Enempkali dropped 19 points to help lead the Lady Panthers to the regional final with a 57-41 win over the Lady Hawks on Friday night at the University of Texas at San Antonio Convocation Center.

Despite falling short of their last checkoff to the 2008-09 season, South coach Dawn Engleman said she couldn't be any prouder of her team.

"I never enjoyed a season as much as this one," she said. "It was the joy of coaching these players, and we accomplished all of our goals this year except for one, and that was to move past this round."

Bianca Torre led her team with 10 points, seven steals and four assists in the loss, but she took solace in the way her team kept fighting.

"We love to play the game," Torre said. "It just shows the character of the team. We wanted to go back-to-back Sweet 16, and we did that even though didn't get past it like we wanted to. "

South came out hot, taking a 5-1 advantage during the first quarter with help from a 3-pointer by Torre that brought the Lady Hawks fans to their feet.

The 6-foot-2 Enempkali then made her presence known, scoring nine of the Lady Panthers' 16 points as Pflugerville went 16-9 with 15 seconds remaining in the first.

On the last play, guard Araceli Perez drove across the paint and drained a floater, cutting the Lady Panthers' lead to 16-11.

Yet it was in the third quarter when the Lady Panthers pulled away, as Nneka - who sat the entire second quarter because of foul trouble - came back in and dominated.

She had four blocks and six points as her team went on a 13-2 run from which South never recovered.

"We were out of sync most of the game, and that was because of Harlingen South's defense," Pflugerville coach Nancy Walling said. "We knew they were a great team, and we had to come out and set the tempo. Nneka is young and developing strongly. She is really competitive and wants to win."

South's Miranda Garcia and Victoria Martinez each had eight points on the night. The Lady Hawks finishes their season 35-3.

Louie Vera covers girls basketball for Valley Freedom Newspapers. He can be reached at (956) 982-6663 or via e-mail at lvera@brownsvilleherald.com.