By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
HIDALGO — From the outset, it was clear that Houston Wheatley was the more athletic, taller and faster team.
But it didn’t help, either, that Mission Veterans Memorial never really got into a flow in its offense. It took hurried attempts. It missed about half its foul shots. And it blew several drives to the basket. It was too much for the Patriots to overcome, and it cost them the Pirate Classic trophy following a 51-35 loss Saturday.
Mission Veterans (17-1) endured its first defeat of the season after being ranked No. 17 in the state among 5A teams. The Patriots trailed 16-3 midway through the first quarter and struggled to make it competitive the rest of the way.
Wheatley applied a full-court press, forcing Mission Vets to make quick passes to avoid traps but it never really materialized into much. And, in turn, Wheatley came away with seven steals, creating plenty of opportunities in transition.
“We dug ourselves a hole and our shots didn’t fall. Theirs did,” Mission Vets coach Romeo De La Garza said. “Against a team like that, you can’t dig yourself a hole. But it’s a learning experience for us. Playing a team like that — they were in the final four last year — it’s good for us to see how our guys are going to respond.”
Wheatley, the No. 4-ranked 4A squad, was largely reduced to pull-up jumpers after Mission Vets took away the paint. The Patriots, who have made a case early in the season to take charges, clogged the paint whenever Wheatley attacked the basket and Mission Vets usually came away with a favorable call.
Outside of that, the Patriots hardly had much go their way.
They drained 9 of 17 from the foul line — a stat that drew some attention after Mission Veterans drilled back-to-back 3-pointers late in the game to make it 47-32. And they were beaten on the boards. Badly.
Wheatley was called for going over the top of Mission Veterans players twice in the first half but otherwise found success crashing the glass. Early in the second quarter, there was a sequence in which the Wildcats came away with three offensive rebounds before cashing in on a putback to make it 30-10. And just before intermission Wheatley snatched five offensive boards, including a failed tip-in as time expired.
“They’re tall, they’re fast and we just did our best to compete with them,” Mission Veterans’ Rigo Peña said. “That’s all we could do.”
Peña, who was the only Patriots player named to the all-tournament team, finished with a team-high 14 points, including a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter.
No other Mission Veterans player scored in double figures, with Adam Solis netting eight points and Orly Villalobos chipping in with seven.
“We were rushing our offense,” Villalobos said. “We weren’t pacing ourselves. We were trying to keep up with them and we should have just played at our speed.
“It’s a tough one, but we’ve been consistent (through the first 17 games). It’s a good thing this happened now before district starts (in January). We just can’t come out sluggish like we did tonight.”
The loss Saturday marked Mission Veterans’ sixth game in three days and their third tournament in about a month. They won the Edcouch-Elsa Tournament and the Mission Thanksgiving Classic and came just one win shy of adding a third title.
“I know that they’re hurting in the locker room. That’s the type of bunch that we have,” De La Garza said. “We’re going to evaluate we have to do and move forward with that.”