HOBBS, NM---The Lady Mustangs took to the court on Thursday night and staged one of their biggest comebacks of the season as they defeated the Jarvis Christian Bulldogs 67-61. The victory brings the Mustangs record to 7-17 (4-13 in conference).
"That was a hard-fought game. Felt like we weren't knocking down shots early and getting away from our game plan. I had to get on the girls during a timeout and tell them to buckle down. Shooting in the 4
th quarter went wild and scored 32 points. That was huge, it was more than we scored in the 1
st half." said Coach
Cory Hitchcock following tonight's victory over the Jarvis Lady Bulldogs.
The Lady Mustangs were down 13 points with 2:41 left in the 3
rd quarter and then caught fire offensively. It was a slow start for USW as they shot 20% (6-30) in the first half which included 2-9 from 3-pt range. Going into the locker room, the Lady Mustangs were down 23-19 after scoring only 7 points in the 2
nd quarter. "We settled for a lot of jumpers early on and we didn't get to the hoop." said Coach
Cory Hitchcock on the slow start.
However, the 2
nd half was completely different story. The Lady Stangs shot 80.8% (21-26) from the field in the 2
nd half and missed only 1 shot in the 4
th quarter.
Desiree Garza led the way for the Mustangs with 20 points on 8-12 shooting. "I think my defense got my offense rolling. It got me in good spots on the floor and got me to the open shots." Garza had to say about her offense tonight.
Meredith Keasler had another strong night on the court contributing 11 points and 4 rebounds. "We stuck together. We didn't let our heads drop and if it did, we had a teammate there backing us up. We did the little things correctly, which we didn't focus on in the 1
st half, but we really focused on them in the 2
nd." Keasler said of the team's mentality during their comeback in the 4
th quarter.
For the game the Lady Mustangs shot 48.2% (27-56) and were 11-18 from the free-throw line. Although the Ladies were outrebounded 48-38, the ladies led the assist category with 20 assists as a team and many of them coming in crucial stretches down the end.
The Lady Mustangs have their season finale on Saturday afternoon, but Coach Hitchcock loves the way his team has finished down the stretch and hopes it carries into the offseason. "They're fighters. It's what we've wanted out of them all year, to never think you're out of a game. I think they're starting to buy-in to what we are doing and it's a bummer that the season is coming down to the end because were playing some really good basketball. Hopefully this is good momentum going into the offseason and send our seniors off on a high note."