By ADAM KUJAWSKI, Staff Writer
It took a freshman to give the Los Fresnos Falcons the shot in the arm they needed.
Jordan Urbina scored a game-high 14 points during the final 12 minutes of the contest, including nine during the fourth quarter, and the Falcons (16-10, 5-3 in District 32-6A) pulled ahead late to top the Harlingen South Hawks 48-42 on Tuesday in Los Fresnos.
The Hawks (13-13, 5-3) were ahead 27-18 early in the third quarter, and Los Fresnos was struggling to find the bottom of the net.
But Falcons coach Marco Hinojosa called a timeout with 4:05 remaining in the period, prompting a 13-2 run by Los Fresnos during a span of just more than five minutes.
“It took two freshman coming in from the bench in (Andrew Carrizales) and (Jordan Urbina),” Hinojosa said. “They gave our team a huge spark. I finished the game with two freshmen on the floor, and thank God for them.”
The final basket of the Los Fresnos run gave the Falcons their first lead of the night, and it wasn’t relinquished. Even though the Hawks scored 13 points during the fourth, Los Fresnos had caught fire and the 21 points it scored were enough to put South away.
“It came down to offensive rebounding, Los Fresnos did a really good job on the offensive boards,” Harlingen South coach Brian Molina said. “We were giving them second and third shots, and when you let a good team like that get two or three shots at it, it’s going to be tough.
“It was two good ballclubs going at each other. We knew it was going to be tough to win at Los Fresnos. The kids played hard, but in the end I think Los Fresnos played a little bit harder than we did tonight.”
The Los Fresnos offense was missing in action during the first half of the game.
The Falcons matched the Hawks with nine first-quarter points, but Los Fresnos only made one successful field goal to go with two made free throws for a five-point second quarter.
“We struggled offensively. We were shooting 13 percent at halftime,” Hinojosa said. “South struggled offensively themselves. There’s nothing we were doing defensively, we were just both struggling. If we both hit shots, it would have been a different ballgame.
“It’s just two teams going at it, knowing that it’s a big game no matter what. I don’t know if the best team won tonight, but one team has to win and one has to lose.”
The Hawks’ Luke Bradford was second in scoring with 11 points, and teammate Jimmy Morton added seven. Hugo de la Cruz was the Falcons’ second-leading scorer with eight points.
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.