By ADAM KUJAWSKI, Staff Writer
Through one quarter, it looked as though the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers were going to be in a dogfight with the Los Fresnos Falcons.
Then Hugo de la Cruz took over.
The point guard netted 26 points and led Los Fresnos (13-9, 2-2 in District 32-6A) to a 68-48 win Tuesday night.
With the score Falcons trailing 14-12 at home, de la Cruz scored nine points during the opening three minutes of the second quarter.
“The way Hugo plays, if he shows up, we’re going to be all right,” Los Fresnos coach Marco Hinojosa said. “If he doesn’t show up, it’s going to be a long day. He showed up to play today.
“He is the heart and soul of this team, but it’s not just because of him that we won. At the end of the day it’s a team effort, we defended as a team and we met a lot of our goals as a team.”
The Chargers (13-9, 2-2) kept pace with Los Fresnos and neutralized the barrage by scoring eight points, but after the midway point of the quarter the Falcons’ Alexander Corrizales joined in the scoring and added six points to go with another four from de la Cruz.
Brownsville Veterans failed to keep up, and the Falcons took a 33-27 lead into halftime.
“(De la Cruz) played better than any kid I’ve seen play in the Valley this year,” Brownsville Veterans coach Larry Gibson said. “We tried some of everything on him, and we couldn’t contain him.”
Los Fresnos found production by spreading the ball around more during the third quarter. Six different players scored for the Falcons, totaling 13 points.
Meanwhile, after Aaron Villarreal scored six points during the opening four minutes of the third, the Chargers again fell upon a scoring drought.
By the end of the period, the Falcons were ahead by nine.
De la Cruz again took over to seal the victory, scoring six points during the opening four minutes of the fourth quarter to go with two 3-pointers by Alex Garcia. Los Fresnos was ahead 61-44 and — despite attempts by the Chargers to put Falcons players on the free throw line — the home team held on.
“We hung with them in the first quarter, but they wanted it more than us,” Gibson said. “The last three quarters they outplayed us. I can’t make excuses, they just outplayed us. We looked like we didn’t have the energy we’ve had the past two games.”
Villarreal was the game’s second-leading scorer with 13 points. Garcia chipped in another 11 for the Falcons.
Adam Kujawski covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @adamkujo1.