Aniya Joseph powers San Antonio Harlan to bi-district win over Laredo Alexander in 6A Texas basketball playoffs
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — After enduring a single loss since the start of 2023 — a two-point defeat to San Antonio Brennan — red-hot San Antonio Harlan had no problem taking care of business against Laredo Alexander.
The Lady Hawks dominated the interior and controlled the glass all night long, grabbing an early lead to roll to a runaway 79-42 win over Alexander in their bi-district round clash Monday night in the Class 6A Texas high school girls basketball playoffs at Corpus Christi Moody High School.
Harlan was paced by junior center Aniya Joseph, who finished with a team-high 17 points.
The victory also represents the Lady Hawks' 15th win in their last 16 games, vaulting San Antonio Harlan into the second round of the 6A UIL girls basketball playoffs for the third straight season.
“I felt that both teams came out really prepared and did a really good job,” San Antonio Harlan head coach Mannasha Agusi said. “It was super intense and high energy the whole entire time.”
The Lady Hawks (28-4) move on to play the winner of the Harlingen-Mission game that took place Monday night, while Laredo Alexander (12-26) saw it season come to an end.
San Antonio Harlan was able to control the paint with Joseph to open the floor for the Lady Hawks, and that was key down the stretch.
“We tell the girls before every game, we have keys to victory,” Agusi said.
“The main thing that we tell them is to look to play inside out, so get it inside as much as possible. If we don’t have anything inside, then we look to the outside. I think that the girls did a really good job executing.”
The Lady Hawks went to Jospeh from the opening tipoff early in the game and took a 6-2 lead before Laredo Alexander’s Emily Buitron connected on a long triple to make it a one-score game.
Buitron was Laredo Alexander’s lone bright spot, dropping 20 points on the night and finished with four 3-pointers.
“San Antonio Harlan is a tough team and they are up there in the rankings,” Laredo Alexander head coach Ivan Medellin said.
“We try to put together as best game plan as we could and we were hoping they would not make a lot of shots and they were making them. Then add their athleticism and size was really the big difference.”
San Antonio Harlan also did a great job of controlling the boards and out-rebounding Laredo Alexander, which had a hard time establishing its inside game. The Lady Hawks were able to build a 14-6 lead by the end of the opening quarter.
After the end of the first quarter, Joseph continued to dominate in the paint and her tenacity down low opened up the perimeter for Emma Flores, who scored eight of her 16 total points during the second quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers.
Alexa Romero also started to make her presence felt late in the second half and hit a pair of baskets as San Antonio Harlan outscored Laredo Alexander 23-8 to carry a 37-14 lead into halftime.
Romero finished with 14 points on the night with eight points coming during the second half.
The intermission did very little to slow down the Lady Hawks, who picked up where they left off. Harlan dominated the paint on both ends of the court and opened the second half on a 6-3 run thanks to baskets by Flores and Joseph.
Buitron continued to power Laredo Alexander, as the sophomore standout connected on back-to-back triples for the Lady Bulldogs to make it a 43-20 ball game with 5:14 left during the third quarter.
San Antonio Harlan continued to press Laredo Alexander defensively, not allowing second-chance looks at the basket.
Meanwhile at the other end of the floor, the Lady Hawks consistently caught the Lady Bulldogs out of sync on defense which lead to several fastbreak buckets.
With the game well in hand, Harlan rested its starting five by the start of the fourth quarter and gave its bench players plenty of on-court action the rest of the way.
San Antonio Harlan (28-4) advances to the area round of the Class 6A Texas high school girls basketball playoffs, where the Hawks will face the Harlingen Cardinals (23-10) at a to-be-determined time, date and location later this week.
Check out SBLive's exclusive photo gallery from the game:
PHOTO GALLERY — SAN ANTONIO HARLAN 79, LAREDO ALEXANDER 42
All photos by Clara Sandoval
