Lady Tarpons Take Lady ‘Kats in OT, 44-43

By LARRY GAGE
Special to the PRESS

January 29, 2015

The Port Isabel Lady Tarpons hoops squad took to the road Tuesday night and took down the Lady Bearkats of Raymondville, 44-43, in overtime.

With the win Port Isabel holds on to forth place in the standings of District 32-4A with a 5-5 district record. Rio Hondo, undefeated in league play with a 10-0 record, is on top of the standings, La Feria is second at 9-1, and Zapata is third with an 8-2 district record.

“It was one of the best wins I’ve been a part of here at Port Isabel,” head  PI coach Blake Ramsey told the Press Wednesday morning.

The top four teams in the final district standings will earn a playoff spot. Four games remain to be played. “If we can win three out of four we secure a spot,” Ramsey said. “We control our own fate.”

With the score tied at 39 late in the fourth quarter Raymondville had possession and they took a time-out with 16 seconds to play. “On the inbound pass they got a shot off and missed it,” Ramsey said. “We were able to secure the rebound.” The score remained tied at the end of regulation and it was on to overtime.

It was Ramsey’s bench that won the game in the end as all the starters fouled out of the contest in regulation or in overtime. Raymondville inbounded the ball with .5 seconds on the clock and made the shot, but the shooter did not get it off before the final buzzer sounded.

Kacey Chavez tied the score at 43 and Marlen Flores was fouled on a layup attempt with four seconds left in the overtime. “She missed the first one and made the second one, so we were up 44-43 with no timeouts left.”

Jasmine Saldavar and Telly Cantu tied the ball up, Raymondville inbounded with half-a-second on the clock, and that was a final, 44-43.

“I was really proud of my bench,” Coach Ramsey said. “All year they’ve done a great job. In this game they didn’t have any of the leading scorers to rely on and they really stepped up big. Alex fouled out in regulation, Kelcie fouled out, then Karina fouled out.

Port Isabel led 15-5 at the end of a quarter of play, 24-17 at halftime, and trailed 32-33 at the start of the fourth quarter.

Kelcie Swink led the team with 18 points and 14 rebounds for a double-double. Alex Martinez also doubled up with 10 points and 11 steals. Averie Colunga had six points and also made six steals.

“I think that’s a season-high for her (Martinez, 11 steals). She’s very aggressive on defense. She does a very good job of reading the person with the ball. She was all over the court last night.

The Lady Tarpons made eight of 16 free throw attempts. Raymondville hit 17 of 30 shots from the line.

The Lady Tarpons JV team won their game, 22-18. There was no freshmen game.

“It was a confidence booster,” Ramsey said. “Some of the girls, there at the end, hadn’t played at such a critical time, and they played very well. Everyone contributed. Our leading scorers are going to get their points. Everyone else needs to contribute … rebounds, steals, whatever their role is.”

The team will alternate home and away games the rest of the way. They will host Grulla this Friday (Jan. 30), travel to Hidalgo next Tuesday (Feb. 3), return to Tarpon Gym on Friday, Feb. 6, and go to La Feria on Monday, Feb. 9, to conclude the district schedule.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2015/01/30/lady-tarpons-take-lady-kats-in-ot-44-43/

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