Hernandez leads Chargers past Huskies

Eduardo Hernandez led the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers with 18 points during their 60-53 victory over the La Joya Juarez-Lincoln Huskies on Tuesday in a District 32-4A matchup.

Jesus Salinas led the Huskies with 23 points in the loss.

"Our rebounding helped us more than anything," Chargers coach Larry Gibson said. "We fought hard all game and we wanted it more in the end."

The Chargers (18-10, 9-5 District 32-4A) were down five at the beginning of the second quarter when they went on a 9-0 run to take the lead. The Chargers’ run began when Mikey Esparza was fouled during a 3-point attempt and made all three of his free throws. The Chargers held the Huskies to nine points in the quarter and did not give up their lead for the rest of the game.

The best chance the Huskies (11-14, 7-7) had was late in the fourth when they were down 56-50 after a 3-pointer from Salinas. Hernandez and Esparza then scored two layups apiece to put any chance of a Juarez-Lincoln comeback to rest. Hernandez was a dominant force in the fourth, scoring eight points in the paint.

The Huskies’ chances didn’t look good in the first when the Chargers took a 6-2 lead, but Juarez-Lincoln responded by going on a 15-6 run with 11 points coming from Salinas. However, the Chargers’ defense stepped up and their offense started hitting its shots in that second quarter.

"We knew we had to rebound," Huskies coach Eric Montalvo said. "We just made bad choices, didn’t hit our marks when we were supposed to and that cost us layups."

Other contributors for the Chargers were Alan Ramirez with 15 points and Esparza with seven. Juan Andrade scored 14 points for the Huskies and Rey Basaldua added eight.

Earlier Tuesday, the Lady Huskies defeated the Lady Chargers 48-44 led by Maria De Alejandro’s 19 points, followed closely by Kimberly Berlanga with 17. Krystal Flores led the Lady Chargers with 14 points, followed by Cassie Garza with 7.

"We were able to stick with pressure and take care of the ball," Lady Huskies coach Anisa Reyna said. "Early on we were rushing everything, but we slowed it down and executed and made our free throws."

The Lady Chargers were up eight in the fourth quarter when the Lady Huskies fought back to cut the lead to one. De Alejandro then scored five straight free throws to seal the victory.

"They played hard tonight," Lady Chargers coach Lottie Zarate said. "Thirty turnovers and 14 for 29 from the free-throw line won’t win games, especially crucial games."