LBJ tops RGC for title

ELSA — The Laredo LBJ Wolves basketball team was actually going to enjoy its three-hour bus trip home on Saturday night.

Laredo LBJ captured its first ever tournament championship in school history as they defeated Rio Grande City 80-46 Saturday night in the 55th Annual Twin Cities tournament at the Robert Capello gym at Edcouch-Elsa high school.

“This is going to be a fun bus trip home,” said LBJ senior captain Manny Cortina. “We worked real hard for this accomplishment and we are going to celebrate on the way back to Laredo.”

Wolves head coach Bill Groogan said that he is glad to take a championship trophy back home for the first time.

“We are going to look forward to taking the championship trophy to the principal’s office,” said Groogan. “This is the first time we have ever brought home a championship in an invitational tournament in the eight or nine years of the school’s existence.

“I am real proud of the boys and this tournament is a learning experience for us. We had a tough time early on against Donna and La Joya in the earlier rounds, but did a much better job finishing in the final game. Now we are going to go home and play two huge games next week against Laredo United and Alexander as well as district play, which is right around the corner.”

Laredo LBJ (7-2) came out firing early on as it jumped out to a 14-5 lead with 2:50 left in the first quarter.

Rio Grande City (4-5) cut the lead to seven as Jorge Garcia hit a lay-up with 2:00 left in the opening quarter.

However, that’s as close as the Rattlers would get as the Wolves opened it up offensively and never looked back as they took a commanding 46-20 lead into the half.

In the second half, Laredo LBJ kept the foot on the gas and never took it off.

“Our passing and catching was much better tonight, and that was the biggest reason for our success as well as not turning the ball over as much,” said Groogan.

In the third-place game, Donna (5-5) overcame an early deficit and went on to defeat Hidalgo 69-57 and La Joya took the consolation championship as they defeated Mission 52-42.

Twin-Cities Tournament
BOYS
At Edcouch-Elsa
Thursday’s games
St. Joseph 55, Progreso 36
Harvest Christian 73, La Feria 71
Laredo LBJ 77, La Joya 73
Hidalgo 64, Mission 50
RGC 67, Valley View 42
Friday’s games
Donna 81, Edcouch-Elsa 50
EE 78, Progreso 25
Donna 49, St. Joseph 45
La Joya 66, La Feria 49
Laredo LBJ 80, Harvest Christian 51
Mission 49, Valley View 47
RGC 79, Hidalgo 78, 2OT
Saturday’s games
La Joya 67, Edcouch-Elsa 55
Laredo LBJ 66, Donna 63
La Feria 66, Progreso 26
Harvest Christian 74, St. Joseph 70, 2OT
Edcouch-Elsa 58, Valley View 55, OT
Consolation Championship
La Joya 52, Mission 42
Third-Place Game
Donna 69, Hidalgo 57
Championship Game
Laredo LBJ 80, RGC 46