By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — There were a couple of blooper-worthy moments Tuesday when Mission Veterans’ bigs corralled a rebound and pushed the ball up court, drawing oohs and awes from the crowd as they ignited a break … before throwing away the ball.
Coach Romeo De La Garza didn’t seem to mind, however. During the offseason, he implored everyone — from the guards to the posts — to work on their ball-handling specifically for these moments. And while there’s still some kinks to iron out, the Patriots did enough things well against Edcouch-Elsa to cruise to a 63-45 victory and improve to 12-0.
Knowing how many returners, and the type of athleticism they possessed, De La Garza tinkered with his offense this offseason, doing away with the half-court set he had in place. Ball movement, he believed, was the key, so he prepared his players for a run-and-gun style of basketball that they seem to be flourishing it, making the extra pass and finding players open for a spot-up shots.
“Every opportunity we get,” De La Garza said, “we want to make sure we get the ball in transition.”
It certainly seemed that way Tuesday as players like Orly Villalobos snatched rebounds and took it the length of the court for layups. Or even Leo Salazar, a converted point guard, who created several opportunities by driving and dishing.
“We have speed, we have quickness, we have pretty much everything a basketball team wants,” said Salazar, who finished with 9 points, 5 assists and 2 steals. “So we’ve just got to play our brand of basketball.”
As a senior, Salazar is making the adjustment acclimating to a new role after playing shooting guard the past three years. On Tuesday, he hardly seemed like a novice.
He drove baseline early and hit a shot while drawing the ball. Later, he drove in the paint, drawing two defenders before passing it off to Matthew Guajardo (12 points). He opened the second half in the same manner in which he started the game — finding Jaycobb Hinojosa (12 points) on an alley-oop pass.
Minutes later, Salazar hit a stepback 3-pointer as Mission Vets led 47-33.
“That’s the thing, we’ve got a lot of different guys that can step up and contribute,” De La Garza said. “And as a coach, that’s what excites me.”
De La Garza entered the game unsure what to expect. His team hadn’t played in more than a week, and he feared they would be out of rhythm.
The Patriots hardly showed any signs of sluggishness, building a double-digit lead midway point through the opening quarter. They finished the game burying 6s and 9 of 12 foul shots, putting plenty of pressure on E-E to gamble with the long ball in the second half.
The game, as a whole, drew attention to the Yellowjackets’ inefficiencies. They don’t drive to the basket as much as coach Rick Treviño would like them to. And they still need work with their transition defense, which was exposed with a team like Mission Veterans on Tuesday.
“I think we came out a little timid, a little scared,” Treviño said of his young squad. “We weren’t being aggressive defensively, plugging the paint and hedging. And we kind of lost the 50/50 balls.
“We know we scheduled ourselves really tough. Everyone we’ve played is going to be ranked or make playoffs in district. We’re just hoping to get better every game. And if we could pull one of these eventually, our season’s going to turn around.”
After the loss, E-E dropped to 3-6. They’re still experimenting with lineups after graduating their seven-play rotation. In fact, on Tuesday, Treviño went with one freshman, one junior and three sophomores at one point, trying to find the right combination to jolt his struggling team.