Lady Mustangs stun Poth in comeback win

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NIXON — The Lady Mustangs have proved it time and time again, there is absolutely no quit in those athletes. Friday night down 11 at the half, Nixon-Smiley proved yet again that no matter the score, they will play all 32 minutes.

Midway through the fourth, the Lady Mustangs fought and took their first lead of the game off a Christy Perez three, turning around a deficit and ultimately knocking off the second-place Poth Pirettes 57-52, moving Poth to 6-2 and Nixon-Smiley to 5-2.

“It was a big second half,” Nixon-Smiley head coach Scott Jones said. “We were down in the first and I just told them to keep fighting.”

Poth began the game with a full-court press, keeping that pressure throughout the game. Nixon-Smiley was unable to get things going as they turned over the ball multiple times.

“If you looked at the stats, the free throw percentage and the shots we missed down low, we were just beating ourselves,” Jones explained. “[If] we correct those mistakes, we’ll be fine.”

“That was basically it … we were hurting ourselves.”

In the first half, the Lady Mustangs were 6-of-13 from the free-throw line.

With Poth leading 31-20 and Nixon-Smiley in foul trouble, Jones opted to make a few adjustments, especially with countering the Pirettes’ press.

“We just set a few screens for us to get open a little bit better,” Jones explained. “I’m lucky to have Celeste [Arriaga] because she can handle the ball pretty well, so we just let her go.”

Down 13 right at the start of the third, the Lady Mustangs would go on a 13-2 run, with points coming in from Tyhana Mejia, Maggie Mendez, Celeste Arriaga and Christy Perez.

Mejia and Perez scored big from long range while Arriaga was able to get to the free-throw line on “and-one” opportunities during the run.

“That was a big help,” Jones commented when asked about the three pointers.

Poth countered in the end of the third going on a 10-4 run to go back up 10.

Nixon-Smiley then answered again, going on an 13-4 run before Poth had to call a timeout. Arriaga scored four while Perez scored six including a three that made the home crowd erupt as the Lady Mustangs took their first lead of the game, making it 50-49 with 4:05 left in the game.

Later, Poth’s 24 scored a basket to retake the lead before Arriaga made another three to give Nixon-Smiley the 53-51 lead. Mejia was later fouled, sending her to the free-throw line where she made both baskets to give the Lady Mustangs a four-point lead. Arriaga scored the final basket on a fast break to go up 57-52 with about 40 ticks left on the clock. Poth was unable to get an offense going, giving Nixon-Smiley the win.

“[This win was] big because Poth is always a fantastic team,” Jones said. “If you can come out on top against them, you’ve done something.”

“We work hard,” he continued. “They never stopped playing. We never stop, we always go go go until the final buzzer, it worked out in our favor tonight.”

Christy Perez led the tam in scoring with 19 points, making four three pointers. She also had three rebounds, one steal and two assists. Meanwhile, Arriaga had 17 points, going 6-of-10 from the free-throw line while grabbing four rebounds, two steals and one assist. Tyhana Mejia had 12 points with two rebounds, one block and three steals.

As the Lady Mustangs tread through the second half of district, Jones believes that one key thing they have to still keep an eye out is fouls. A few bench players had to play extended minutes due to the foul trouble his starters had. Although they played well, Jones noted that his bench isn’t necessarily deep in terms of bodies.

“I’m kind of shallow on the bench,” he admitted, “so we need to clean up our fouls.”

Nonetheless, the Lady Mustangs kept pace with Poth, staying in third in District 27-3A with their 5-2 record. Meanwhile, Poth is in second with their 6-2 record while Goliad up remain in first with their 8-0 record.

Nixon-Smiley travel to Stockdale to take on the Lady Brahmas with tipoff scheduled at 6:30 p.m.

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