San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Yanez’s monster second half lifts Indians
Harlandale’s Zoey Yanez may only be a freshman, but she played with the poise and confidence of a veteran Friday night.
Yanez scored 15 straight points in the third and fourth quarters for Harlandale as the visiting Indians knocked off South San 58-49 in a District 28-5A game, avenging a loss to the Bobcats earlier this month.
South San beat Harlandale 65-59 at Harlandale in the teams’ first meeting Jan. 3.
“Winning this game meant a lot,” said Yanez, who scored 20 of her teamhigh 22 points in the second half. “We needed to get a W, and we did it. (In the second half ) I made some shots, and I knew I just needed to keep going to the basket and scoring, and I did it.”
The win kept Harlandale (21-10, 7-4) in the hunt for a playoff berth as the Indians stayed one game ahead of Southside for the final 28-5A spot with three games left in the regular season. The Indians have won five of their past six games. South San (19-9, 8-3) dropped to second place, a game behind McCollum. The Bobcats lost after a run of eight wins in nine games.
“We knew coming into tonight that this game was big,” Harlandale coach Wendell Mulkey said. “We know that where we are in the standings, every game is important. We’ll take the weekend to enjoy this one, but come Monday, we have to get back to work and get ready for the next one.”
Harlandale raced out to a 10-2 lead in the first 2:45 of the game, but the Bobcats took advantage of early fouls by the Indians to make 10 of 11 at the line on their way to a 15-14 lead after the first period.
In the second quarter, Harlandale stopped fouling and retook control of the game.
A 10-1 burst by Harlandale over a span of 3:18 extended the Indians’ lead to 28-20 with 2:08 to go in the half, and Harlandale led 30-24 at the break.
Marissa Ortiz led Harlandale with eight points in the first half, while Julia Barajas and Savannah Garza added six apiece. Raven Gonzales had 13 to lead South San.
The Bobcats pulled to within 40-36 with 1:08 to go in the third period after a basket by Joslyn Torres, but that was when Yanez took over for Harlandale.
Yanez made a pair of layups in the final 68 seconds to give the Indians a 44-36 lead going into the fourth quarter. She then scored the Indians’ first 11 points of the final period, and South San never got closer than seven the rest of the way.
“We have a lot of different players who can score, and different people did it for us tonight,” Mulkey said. “This team has started to really understand how to play together.”
Cascia Sandoval finished with 10 points for Harlandale, while Ortiz pitched in nine and Barajas had eight.
Gonzales scored 22 to lead South San, with Jade Hilliary netting 11 and Torres eight for the Bobcats, who went just 6 of 15 from the line in the second half, including only 2 of 9 in the fourth quarter.
Both teams will be back in action at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, with Harlandale hosting Medina Valley in another critical district game and South San visiting Southwest Legacy.