Bobcats survive Preciado, Greyhounds

WESLACO --- Edinburg High is moving on to the area round, but it didn’t come without a scare from Michael Preciado and the San Benito Greyhounds.

Preciado, who scored nearly half of his team’s points through three quarters, kept the Greyhounds within striking distance, but the Rio Grande Valley’s top-ranked Bobcats used their dominate guard play to creep past San Benito 55-49 on Tuesday night.

Edinburg (30-3) advances to play Laredo Nixon (21-13) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Alice.

“We knew this was going to be a dogfight,” said Edinburg coach Joe Filoteo, whose team defeated San Benito (18-13) earlier this season. “San Benito gets after it defensively, and they caused us some problems early. But our guys, they didn’t win 30 games for nothing. They responded, and we came out of here with a victory.”

Preciado made the Bobcats earn it, netting 17 of his team’s 36 points through three quarters. But the senior went silent during the fourth quarter, as the Bobcats picked up the intensity on defense and controlled the game’s tempo with seniors Esteban Arriola (11 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals) and Noe De La Rosa (11 points).

And when Preciado fouled out with 1:12 remaining and his team down by six (50-44), so went the Greyhounds’ chances of pulling off the first-round upset. The Bobcats, who made 17-of-21 attempts from the line, closed the game out at the charity stripe.

Preciado finished with a game-high 17 points, five rebounds, two blocks and six steals.

“That kid played his heart out,” said San Benito coach Roy Garcia, whose squad snuck into the playoffs as District 32-5A’s fourth seed. “Michael, he’s hurting right now. He’s hurting pretty bad. But that kid played huge for us tonight, just like he has all season.”

The Bobcats, who survived the survived the scare with the 17 free throws and with five timely 3-pointers, were led by Jonathan Chapa’s 13 points and seven rebounds.

“They hit clutch shots,” Garcia said. “That’s why they’re the top team in the Valley.”

Edinburg now returns to the area round, where it has lost the previous seven seasons. The year before the streak began, however, the Bobcats advanced to the Sweet 16.

“That’s not something we try to think about,” Filoteo said. “Everything says this is the year. Like I said, we’ve won 30 games. We won the district title for the third year. We finished undefeated in a tough, tough District 31-5A. We have solid guard play. I just feel like we’ve got a great bunch of guys, and we’ll see how it plays out.”

Wade Baker is the Sports Editor of The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4450.