Basketball Stories: No. 1 Warriors edge No. 3 Bobcats

EDINBURG — Stick together and good things happen.

Such was the case for the Santa Rosa Warriors in their 2009-10 season opener.

The top-ranked Warriors outlasted the No. 3 Edinburg Bobcats in three overtimes and held on for a 90-88 victory on Tuesday at Bobcats Gym.

"I told them we have to stick together all year and keep a positive attitude," Warriors head coach Johnny Cipriano said. "And the kids did that today. They let me do all the talking. We have the right athletes playing. We just have to play together as a team. And we did tonight."

Santa Rosa (1-0) stormed out to a 46-33 halftime lead.

But the Bobcats (0-1) took advantage of some Santa Rosa breakdowns to get back in the game.

Outscoring the Warriors 23-11 in the third, Edinburg only trailed 57-56 after three quarters before tying it at the end or regulation.

"I know they're still missing some football players and they don’t have a full team," Cipriano said. "But we've only had our full team one and a half week too. I wasn't expecting this. A three overtime game in the first game of the season…I wasn't expecting it. We started off good. It's like we never left the floor."

Santa Rosa made history last year as the Warriors reached the Class 2A State Tournament in March.

The Warriors were the first team since Roma did it from 1975-77 to play in the state's Final Four.

Cipriano is well aware that this is only the first of many games this season. But it was a good start.

"I keep telling them that no matter what, we have to stick together," Cipriano said. Everyone's going to make mistakes. I'm going to make mistakes. No one's perfect. But we've got to stick together. If we make a mistake, we just have to suck it up and make it up down the line."

>> Eladio Jaimez, RGVSports.com

Sharyland upsets No. 5 Harlingen South

MISSION — Tuesday’s Sharyland-Harlingen South game was as typical as a season opener gets.

There were tons of fouls, missed shots, blown layups and squandered opportunities for both teams in the Rattlers’ 59-46 win at Sharyland.

Despite the customary rustiness to start the season, however, the win is a real boost for unranked Sharyland (1-0), which knocked off the preseason No. 5 team in the Rio Grande Valley.

“It feels amazing after losing to Laredo Alexander last year in the playoffs by four points,” said senior Jared Denton, who was referring to the team’s 2008-09 bi-district setback. “We were a team of juniors. To win this game means a lot because we have all these returning guys. We are still a team just like we were last year. To come back and beat a top 10 team like this is pretty good.”

Denton led the Rattlers with 15 points and sparked the team with 11 in the second quarter. His shot while falling down and being fouled gave the home team a 33-25 lead at halftime.

His layup with 4:26 left in the third quarter pushed the Rattlers’ lead to 44-33. Sharyland led by as many as 15 points in the second half.

The Hawks (0-1) tried to make a game of it late after a 3-pointer and layup, respectively, by Rico Herrera pulled them to within 50-41 with 3:58 remaining. But the comeback was squashed by consecutive Trevor Marlar layups that gave Sharyland a 54-21 lead with 3:11 to play. Herrera had a game-high 23 points and hit four 3s.

“Every time it seemed like we got into it, Sharyland would go down and make a play,” Hawks coach Brian Molina said. “That just comes with experience. They have a lot of kids that can flat-out score. They came up with the big plays when they needed to.”

Marlar scored 14 and Fred Ramos added 12 points for the Rattlers.

Despite some season-opening rust, Rattlers coach David Keith is not downplaying the importance of the win.

“I think everyone will get going later,” Keith said. “I think Harlingen South is a really well-coached team. They fought hard. My guys were able to answer some of those things and were able to be physical too. This was something they worked very hard for.”

>> Peter Rasmussen, RGVSports.com

McAllen High overpowers Rivera

McALLEN  — The defending District 30-5A champion McAllen High Bulldogs picked up right where they left off as they dominated Brownsville Rivera 78-49 in their season opener Tuesday night at the McHi gym.

Too much height in the Bulldogs’ starting frontline proved to be the difference as they outrebounded the Raiders 16-5 in the first quarter. Senior low post standout J.J. Avila led McHi with 16 points, six boards and three blocks. His sidekick down low, Ryan Evans, pitched in with 15 while snatching five rebounds and three blocks.

“I thought our big guys played big,” McHi coach Roy Swift said. “When they would break our defense with penetration our bigs were there for some key blocks. I thought we rebounded the ball well also.”

Crisp ball movement throughout the game had the Raiders on their heels the whole night. Crosscourt passes galore broke the Raiders’ pressure, giving the Bulldogs easy lay-ups. Swift admits this year one of his team’s goals is to share the ball more in order to make the game easier. Almost every time a Bulldogs player had the ball it would be gone in less than a couple of seconds.

“We talked about the ability of making plays,” Swift said. “If you can’t make one give it to someone else who can and tonight they fed off of that real well.”

Avila, who scored 10 of the Bulldogs’ first 12 points, was a force on both sides of the court. The 6-foot-6 post admits that even with two starters out of the lineup his team showed resiliency in the win, especially down in the paint.

“Hopefully we can make our presence felt with defense this year. We are pretty tall and we can move pretty well,” Avila said.

The game was decided in the first quarter for all intents and purposes as the Bulldogs outscored the Raiders 25-11 thanks to their stingy man-to-man defense that produced five turnovers.

Raiders guard Aaron Alaniz netted a game-high 18 points in the loss.

>> Alvaro Balderas, Special to RGVSports.com

Cardinals rip Vikings in opener

HARLINGEN — The Harlingen Cardinals kicked off the basketball season with an impressive showing as they trounced Pace 65-28.

Even without All-District selections Mack Sanchez and Alejandro Pallares who are still in the thick of football playoffs, the Cardinals players stepped up and played extremely well.

“Whenever guys step up, you should talk to those guys and not me,” said Harlingen head coach Greg Yates. “They are the ones who make it happen and are outstanding young men.

“We won the game by playing great defense. We held them to 15 points in the first half and then our goal was to hold Pace to less than 15 in the second half.”

Leading 14-11 after the first quarter, Harlingen (1-0) kicked it into high gear as they outscored Pace 16-4 in the second quarter and took a 30-15 lead at the half.

The Cardinals never took their foot off of the gas in the second half as they outscored Pace (0-1) 35-13.

“A lot of these kids on the court are playing varsity for the first time, but they went undefeated on the JV squad last year and are quality kids,” said Yates.

“One thing about our team though is that we run a full court man to man and trap you. So, we ask all ouf our guys to be ready to play at any given time. So, even when we get Sanchez and Pallares back, these young men will be ready to go in at any given time.”

Three Cardinals players scored in double figures on the night. Jonathan Sanchez led the Cardinals with 13 on the night and David Pryor and Michael Williams netted 10.

Nico Benavides led the Vikings with seven points on the night.

>> John Cannon, Special to RGVSports.com

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Lady Hawks destroy Lady Warriors

HARLINGEN — It was déjà vu all over again at Harlingen South’s gymnasium Tuesday night as the Lady Hawks opened their basketball season strongly, pounding the McAllen Rowe Lady Warriors, 67-18.

The Hawks’ swarming defense caused multiple turnovers and collected numerous rebounds, while their offense took full advantage. The Hawks ran up a 31-8 lead with 2:34 left in the second, when Christina Navarro hit a three-pointer for the Warriors first field goal of the game.

The Hawks defense was so unrelenting from that point on that the Warriors only scored two points in the third quarter, before finally stringing together nearly a handful of field goals late in the fourth quarter.  

“Their press is as tough as ever, their quickness is as good as ever, and obviously their size advantage tonight made a difference,” a chagrined Warriors head coach Raul Vega admitted. Adding to the frustration was that Yarelli Rios, a returning letterman, went down with an injury during pre-game warm-ups. Rios’ loss, Vega pointed out, really exposed his young team’s inexperience.

The huge lead gave Hawks head coach Dawn Engleman the opportunity to experiment some with her more experienced squad, particularly their chemistry. In the second and third quarters, she made five-player substitutions and was pleased with how the players adjusted. “I didn’t know how they’d handle that as far as mixing things up on the floor,” she said, cautioning that despite the double-digit win “there’s a lot we need to fix, a whole lot, but that’s just going to come with time.”

Joslynn Benavides, Ariel Guevara, and Miranda Garcia led all Hawks scorers with 14, 11, and 10 points, respectively.

>> Lori Vermaas, Special to RGVSports.com 

Battles carries Lopez past PI

It’s early in the season, but so far no team has found an answer for Lopez’s Amanda Battles.

The senior point guard tied her season-high with 35 points and 14 steals to lead the Lady Lobos over the Port Isabel Lady Tarpons66-36 on Tuesday night at Lopez.

So far this season, Battles has had games of 20- and 35-point performances and is averaging 12 steals per game, helping the Lady Lobos to a 2-1 start.

"She is a player," Port Isabel coach Alan Ward said. "She wore us out this game and is a good one."

Celina Garcia added 13 points, pouring in seven of those within the first two minutes of the game.

Battles scored 23 first-half points, helping Lopez to a 36-16 halftime advantage.

Port Isabel opened the third quarter with two quick buckets by Oce Guera and Wendy Flores to cut the deficit to 36-20, but the momentum was short-lived.

Battles started an 11-0 run for Lopez with nine points coming from the senior floor general before the Lady Tarpons’ Brittney Lerma scored a layup with 3:35 left in the game.

"Overall, I’m happy the way we played but we need to play four quarters, not two or three," Lopez coach Minnie Tarbet said. "Battles had a good game, she put pressure on the ball up the court and scored well. "

Gaby Gonzalez led Port Isabel with seven points, and Lerma contributed five.

>> Louie Vera, RGVSports.com