Weslaco picks up big win against San Benito
SAN BENITO — Sometimes teams have to really earn a victory and the Weslaco Lady Panthers can attest to that.
Weslaco survived a late surge by San Benito and was able to secure a huge 52-48 victory.
With the win, the Lady Panthers improved to 9-2 in District 32-5A to keep their district title hopes alive as they currently trail Los Fresnos by two games with three to go. As for San Benito, the defending d32-5A champs fell to 7-4 and now have no possible chance of defending their title.
“This was truly a fight to the very end and lucky for us we were able to prevail,” said Weslaco head coach Griselda Fino. “I have to give a lot of credit to San Benito for fighting back and going on that big run at the end of the game.
“But our girls kept their poise and dug deep to hold on.
After a slow start, both San Benito and Weslaco got something going offensively as they battled to a 9-9 tie at the end of the first quarter.
San Benito’s Kasey Sanchez was absolutely unstoppable underneath in the opening quarter as she scored seven of the Lady ’Hounds nine points.
The Lady ’Hounds built a slim lead (13-11) thanks to four big points by Sarah Hartman at the 6:10 mark of the second quarter.
But Weslaco responded in a big way and took a double-digit lead (32-18) into the half. The Lady Panthers outscored San Benito 21-5 throughout the remainder of the quarter as they became extremely aggressive on both sides of the ball.
After the Lady Panthers built their biggest lead of the game (40-23) with 2:47 left in the third quarter, San Benito came fighting back as it went on a monstrous 13-0 run to cut the lead to 40-36 with 6:08 left in the fourth quarter.
However, Weslaco was able stop the run as Summer Smith converted on a huge three-point play, thus giving the Lady Panthers a 43-36 lead with 4:48 left in the contest.
The Lady ’Hounds pulled to within two (50-48) thanks to a jumper by Kasey Sanchez with 1:12 left in the game. But Denisse Vasquez made a layup that gave the Lady Panthers a 52-48 lead with less than a minute to play to seal the deal.
