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LAST night marked the season opener for eight teams in the Interscholastic Middle School Girls Basketball League.

Down south, the Inarajan Middle School Lady Warriors played host to the Jose Rios Middle School Lady Voyagers. When the night ended, the Lady Warriors came away with victories in both the A- and B-Team matches.

In the first game of the night, the B-team Lady Warriors made quick work and defeated the Lady Voyagers, 26-7. Both teams came out in the opening minutes of the game showing clear signs of jitters and butterflies. The Voyagers were first to strike when Vickylynn Mendiola nailed a short jumper.

Before the quarter ended, Inarajan responded with back-to-back baskets of their own and took a 4-2 lead. Later in the first half, the Lady Warriors built a 10-5 lead backed by the scoring of Amber Mendiola. In the final two minutes of the second quarter, both teams had difficulty finding the hoop and went into the break with no change in the score.

Second-half action saw an entirely different Lady Warriors team. Switching to a full-court press, Inarajan forced the Lady Voyagers to commit several turnovers for points. Led by the trio of Mendiola, BriannaMae Crisostomo, and Monica Iriarte, Inarajan held the Voyagers to two points while scoring 16 of their own. The final buzzer sounded with Inarajan picking up the 19-point margin of victory.

A-Team excitement

The later match of the night was an action-filled game as both teams took it to one another. However, at the end of four quarters of play, only one team could walk away victorious. The Warriors completed the sweep after picking up the 20-15 victory.

A slow first half by both teams led to a low scoring output. Heading into the break, Inarajan held on to a slight 9-6 lead. Alyssandra Cruz led the Warriors with four points.

Heading into the final period, the Lady Warriors held a slim 15-11 lead. With half the time on the clock expired, Cruz nailed two free throws and a layup to increase their lead, 19-11.

JLGR threatened a comeback as Amberlyn Carter responded with four points of her own to make it a 19-15 game.

With less than 10 seconds left in the game, Cruz sank one of two shots from the charity stripe to seal the victory. The Voyagers would run out of time to put their mini-surge to a halt as the buzzer sounded.

Interscholastic Middle School Girls Basketball League action resumes tomorrow with games starting at 5:30 p.m.