By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
SAN ANTONIO — As Edinburg Vela gave up second- and third-chance scoring opportunities, assistant coach Nicholas Lopez looked to the bench and shouted, “Four offensive boards won’t get us to state!”
By that point, the SaberCats were beginning to lose the rebounding battle, with 6-foot Lancaster junior Tahjon Starks leaping over Edinburg Vela’s bigs. But the SaberCats had a much bigger problem on their hands with 6-foot-9 center Nate Morris, whose size proved too overwhelming in Thursday’s UIL state semifinals.
Morris went off for a career-high 17 points and eight rebounds as Edinburg Vela endured a 79-58 loss at the Alamodome, as it saw one of the more historic runs in Valley history come to a close.
In the days leading up to the state tournament, head coach Lalo Rios worked tirelessly to find a practice player similar in size to Morris. But Rios was never able to find a comparable player, so Vela proceeded to swarm the Ole Miss signee the best it could, with as many as two or three defenders.
It hardly made a difference.
Morris continually caught the ball inside, where he made 8 of 10 shots, and the SaberCats lost the rebounding battle 35-19 and an opportunity to advance to the UIL state championship.
“We let him get position on us, and he just beat us from there,” said 6-foot-3 Luis Salinas, who was assigned to guard Morris.
Lancaster (35-2), ranked No. 3 in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, will advance to Saturday’s UIL state title game, where it will look to defend its crown.
Heading into the game, No. 8 Edinburg Vela (35-3) was the overwhelming underdog, lacking the size and speed to contain the Tigers, who boasted three Division I athletes.
“It wore us down,” Rios said. “We ran with them as long as we could, but at some point they went to another level.”
By the second quarter, the deficit ballooned to double digits. Chris Ochoa did his part off the bench to close to six after draining back-to-back 3-pointers with 1:28 left in the opening half.
But Lancaster pushed it back to 12 by halftime, and the SaberCats came out sluggish in the third quarter, losing the frame 20-12.
“We just didn’t come out with that intensity,” Alec De La Cruz said after finishing with 5 points and 3 rebounds.
As a whole, the SaberCats had an characteristic showing. Ryan Garza led the way with a game-high 20 points on 6 of 11 shooting, but tallied seven turnovers as the team coughed up the ball 13 times. They gave up 50 points in the paint to Vela’s 19 and shot only 40.4 percent from the field.
Hector Ruiz finished with 13 points, including six during the opening quarter to give Vela its last lead at 9-8 with 4:54 left.
After playing 29 minutes, Ruiz checked out of the game with 2:38 remaining and Vela down 75-48.
Ruiz hugged each one of his teammates as he made his way to the bench. He was one of 11 Vela seniors to see their high school careers come to a close Thursday, and one of two to have played on varsity since the program’s inception in 2012.
The SaberCats went 8-23 that year, and missed the playoffs after posting a 4-12 district record. Over the next three years, however, Vela went on to distinguish itself as one of the better programs in the Valley.
They made the playoffs three years in a row, including two Sweet 16 trips. They won back-to-back district titles, including this year’s outright. And they became the first Valley team in Class 5A or higher to reach the UIL state semifinals after winning 17 consecutive games.
“It was an incredible season, especially coming back from my freshman year,” Salinas said. “I’ll never forget it — these guys, the coaches. It was a great step forward, and hopefully next year they do it even better.”