Still, Harlingen South head coach Brian Molina will take a 2-0 District 32-6A start anyway.
After trailing the entire fourth quarter, the South Hawks scored five points in 12 seconds and sent the Brownsville Rivera Raiders home with a 53-51 loss Tuesday night in Harlingen.
Trailing by three as the final 12 seconds began to tick away, South took the inbound pass and got it into the hands of Gabe Britten, who launched a straight away three to tie the Raiders 51-51.
South’s Fernando Chavez followed by making a play on the ensuing Rivera inbound pass and got pushed intentionally in the process, sending him to the line with 1.7 seconds left to hit the game-winning free throws.
The intentional foul gave South (2-0) possession after the clutch makes by Chavez.
The game had seven ties and nine lead changes, as the Rivera (1-1) defense and their ability to get to the basket on offense looked to frustrate the Hawks throughout.
For Molina, it was about finishing the game the ability to keep on shooting.
“Rivera had a really good game plan, they defended us well and they are a well-coached team. I told the guys that they had to keep playing hard and things will start to go their way,” Molina said. “It took almost 32 minutes, but the ball finally bounced our way.”
Things looked good for Rivera when Danny Elizondo put his team ahead 49-47 with 1:16 to play, but South finished the game on a 7-2 run.
Still, Rivera head coach Saul Villarreal didn’t feel his team should’ve let it come down to that.
The Raiders missed seven of their 20 free throw attempts, including three in the fourth quarter and had some open high-percentage shots not fall from the start.
“The thing is we missed a lot of easy shots under the boards at the beginning and (South) made that shot. We missed some free throws to get ourselves to be in that situation,” Villarreal said. “However, (South) came back and they played good ball and great defense’ you can’t take anything from them. It’s still early, but we’re starting to play good ball. There are still a lot of games left.”
Britten’s three was one of two shots from beyond the arc in the fourth.
He also hit one with 5:53 left to bring his team within one and finished with a game-high 16 points, while teammate Luke Bradford followed with 10.
For Rivera, Chris Vasquez and Jesse Reyes led the way with 12 and 10 points respectively.