Mustangs surge late vs. Hurricanes, win 27-5A title
Jefferson’s girls basketball team trailed Sam Houston 40-26 with 7:36 to go in their District 27-5A game Tuesday night at the Alamo Convocation Center, and the district championship trophy looked like it was going to the Hurricanes.
But Jefferson rallied in the final seven-plus minutes — outscoring the Hurricanes 24-9 in the final period — to pull out a 50-47 victory and clinch the district title and a No. 1 seed in the Class 5A state playoffs, which start next week.
“This feels amazing,” said Jefferson senior Madison Guzman, who scored nine of her 13 points in the fourth quarter. “This is something I’ve been waiting for and working for for four years. We knew we were down, but our coaches and our fans helped us stay in the game. We knew that if we could play some defense, we could give ourselves a chance, and we did.”
The Mustangs got back into the game with an 8-0 run to pull within 40-34 with 4:26 remaining. Sam Houston stretched its lead back out to 43-34 on a Chamariel Henderson putback with 3:35 to go, but that was the Hurricanes’ final field goal of the game.
A 12-0 run — finished off by a pair of Guzman free throws — gave the Mustangs their first lead of the game at 46-44 with 1:47 left.
Sam Houston got no closer than two the rest of the way, the final time coming at 49-47 after an Amya Miller-singleton layup with 17 seconds to go.
Guzman was fouled on the Mustangs’ next possession and made 1-of-2 free throws with six
seconds left to put Jefferson ahead 50-47. Guzman then blocked Sam Houston’s desperation heave to seal the district championship.
“I can’t say enough about all the hard work these kids have done,” Jefferson head coach Natasha Benavides said. “We knew this game wasn’t going to be easy. These kids just didn’t want
to lose. We kept the same game plan throughout the game. We just started hitting some shots.”
Jefferson (24-7, 13-3) closed its regular season with two straight wins and 13 victories in its final 16 contests. But for the first three quarters of Tuesday’s game, it was Sam Houston (22-11, 12-4) that controlled the tempo.
The Hurricanes — who had a
two-game winning streak snapped — scored the first 11 points before Kathleen Santos hit a pair of free throws with 43 seconds to go in the opening period to finally get Jefferson on the board.
Sam Houston led 26-16 at halftime, and the Hurricanes kept things going in the third quarter, countering every Jefferson run
to take a 38-26 lead into the final period.
Santos had 16 points to lead Jefferson, with Amarys Cuellar adding 14, Guzman 13 and Alyssa Reyna seven.
Cheyanne Mitchell and Miller-singleton led Sam Houston with 10 points apiece, and Ke’lai’jaia Henderson had nine for the Hurricanes.