(Jourdanton) – Senior forward Haileigh “Bear” Ortiz flipped a short jumper in the lane softly through the net as time expired to lift Navarro over Beeville-Jones 50-48 in the area round of the 4A girls basketball playoffs on Friday in Jourdanton.
The Panthers rallied back from a 10-point deficit early in the fourth quarter to tie it on Laylin Sturm’s driving layup with 32 seconds remaining.
With 7.6 seconds left and the game tied, Berklee Andrews took the inbounds pass from Sturm, drove to the right side and passed to Tatum Harborth on the baseline near the right block.
Harborth made a drop-step move, drew multiple defenders, and found Ortiz wide open on the other side of the lane for the short-range jump-shot.
“Our only senior made the winning shot there,” Navarro head coach Darrell Harborth said. “She did a lot of good things out there for us tonight. She’s an undersized post, but she battles and competes against bigger kids, and to hit that shot, that’s huge for her.”
Navarro led by as many eight points in the second quarter and took a 25-19 cushion into halftime. The score was stuck on 28-23 Panthers for a long stretch in the third period until Beeville-Jones put together a 15-0 run to put Navarro in a 10-point hole, 38-28, early in the fourth.
The Trojans’ sophomore guard Aaralyn Delbosque drained three threes during that stretch, including a buzzer beater at the end of the third quarter.
Tatum Harborth sparked Navarro’s comeback with 13 of her game-high 19 points in the fourth quarter. Sturm, the Panthers’ starting point guard, gave the team a lift as well after sitting for a long stretch with four fouls.
“We just finally decided to be more aggressive and attack offensively, because there for awhile and probably becase Laylin wasn’t on the floor, because she’s definitely a security blanket for us, we were out of sorts,” Coach Harborth said. “It was a big-time struggle, and we just had some bad turnovers.”
The game was originally slated for last Tuesday, and was rescheduled three times due the winter weather that forced school closings and virtually shut down the entire state for most of the week.
“We practiced one day this week. I think that definitely had something to do with too, a little bit,” Coach Harborth said. “But all I could tell them after that was way to get it done when they had to.”
In addition to Tatum Harborth’s 19 points, Ortiz finished with eight, Sturm seven, Ryanne Hepp and Karlee Koenig six apiece, Taylor Helms and Julia Bumguardner two each.
Harborth connected three times from three-point range, all in the second half, and Koenig hit her first three of the season. After shooting just 2-19 from beyond the arc in Navarro’s 54-37 December win over Beeville-Jones, the Trojans burried eight threes to make the playoff rematch much more competitive.
The Panthers (27-2) advance to face the winner of Monday’s area-round game between Fredericksburg and Sweeny.