Cowboys’ depth trumps Perkins’ outburst
Mccollum’s girls basketball team needed every bit of its offensive depth and some timely free throw shooting to hold off Highlands 61-53 in a Class 5A bidistrict round playoff game Monday night at the Alamo Convocation Center.
With the win, Mccollum (28-9) — the District 28-5A champions — moves into the area round later this week against either Leander Glenn (27-5) or Kerrville Tivy (19-7). Glenn and Tivy’s bi-district matchup was scheduled for Tuesday night at Dripping Springs.
“I’m really proud of this team,” Mccollum coach Ernest Lopez said “We were able to beat the best player we’ve played against all year, and that means something. We’re going to play again this weekend, so we’ll enjoy this win tonight, and (Tuesday) we’ll get back to work.”
The Cowboys had to overcome a monster game by Highlands senior guard Janiah Perkins, who scored 40 points for the Owls (16-21) in the loss. Perkins had 20 points in each half and Monday night’s game might have had a different outcome had Perkins not been forced to the bench with her fourth foul with three minutes to go in the third quarter.
By the time Perkins returned early in the fourth period, Mccollum was up, 47-31, and the Cowboys seemed to have the game in hand. However, Perkins scored 11 straight points on three 3-pointers and a jumper to get Highlands within 55-48 with 2:04 to go. A free throw by Mccollum’s Gabriella Gamboa was matched by two free throws from Perkins and the Cowboys led, 56-50, with 1:11 still remaining.
Freshman Noelisa Espinoza was fouled by the Owls and she calmly sank two free throws to push Mccollum’s lead back out to 58-50 with 30 seconds to go, but Highlands, which won its last six regular-season games in a row to qualify for the state playoffs for the fifth straight season, wasn’t done just yet.
Beatrice Martinez drained a 3pointer to get the Owls back to within 58-53 with 21 seconds left, but Espinoza was fouled again with 16 seconds remaining and again she made both free throws to put the Cowboys ahead, 60-53, to send Mccollum into the next round.
Five different Mccollum players had at least seven points, led by 17 from Jizelle Gonzales. Gonzales had 14 of her 17 in the first half, including nine in the opening quarter, for the Cowboys. Freshman Aaliyah Mancha added 15, including nine in the second half. Espinoza and Brianna Villarreal scored nine apiece, with all of Espinoza’s points coming in the second half.
Highlands — the No. 4 seed from District 27-5A — only had three players score in the loss. Besides Perkins’ huge game, Martinez had 11 and Elaya Walker had two points for the Owls.
“All year long, our depth has been our biggest asset,” Lopez said. “We had a lot of different players show up tonight and we needed all of them. We’ve had seven different players lead us in scoring this season. We had different people come through at different times tonight. They came up big for us when we called their number.”