By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
HIDALGO — Shots haven’t been falling for Rio Grande City on a consistent basis. Not since it lost both its bigs.
A hernia injury sidelined 6-foot-5 senior Daniel Garza, while 6-8 sophomore Rodrigo Nuñez was lost to a broken tibia. Neither is expected back this season.
“It changes everything,” acting coach Juan Aldape said. “We used to look a lot to our bigs. Now we’re depending on our guards to knock down 3-pointers and finish. It’s harder without those two.”
The Rattlers have since scrapped their inside-outside attack, and are using the non-district portion of their schedule to devise a new one.
As Aldape puts it, the team’s looking to “rebuild” itself since losing Garza and Nuñez. Initially, the plan was to run its offense through them and see if they could draw a double team before kicking it out or work one-on-one in the post. Now, the Rattlers are primarily relying on drives and kicks.
Though they lost to Edinburg North to open the Hidalgo Pirate Classic on Thursday, Aldape believes the team is making steady progress. They came up empty on layups against the Cougars, and hit just two shots from the outside, but senior Aaron Castillo believes eventually it’ll start falling in their favor.
“We just have to keep at it,” the point guard said.
Without their inside threats, the Rattlers have had a harder time getting open looks. They struggled during the opening quarter Thursday, scoring six points, and finished the half with just six field goals to Edinburg North’s 11.
They trailed 30-19 at the break before Brandon De La Cruz buried three straight 3-pointers to make it 40-26 with 4 minutes left in the third quarter.
Though it boasted a 3-5 record heading into the tournament, RGC has been encouraged by its start, which includes a season-opening win over McAllen High and even a 55-52 loss to Brownsville Lopez (6-2), a Class 6A program.
The Rattlers have done it, in part, with coach Homer Garr out the past few weeks due to medical reasons, Aldape said.
With Garr expected to rejoin the team Monday, RGC is hoping to establish the type of continuity that has eluded the team the past couple of seasons, beginning with a late coaching hire in 2014, the two season-ending injuries and now Garr’s absence.
The Rattlers took their lumps last season, finishing in the bottom of the District 31-5A standings. But they’ve shown promise this year, primarily with a defense that challenges more consistently. Where last year RGC demonstrated it in spurts, the team is more active in challenging every possession.
“We have the talent,” Castillo said. “We just need to incorporate it into the system of play.”