BY MARK MOLINA
Staff Writer
SANTA ROSA — After a convincing regional quarterfinal win over Falfurrias, the Santa Rosa Warriors along with Edinburg Vela are the only two Valley playoff teams left in the state basketball playoffs.
When the Warriors meet Goliad tonight to open the region IV-3A tournament, it will mean that one of their goals from the start of the season has officially come to fruition.
Now, however, the Warrior players are focused on another goal.
The confident bunch now feels a trip to the state tournament is very much possible, especially because head coach Johnny Cipriano and the Warriors won the region tournament back in 2009 to qualify for state.
“I said let’s get to regionals, but the guys have said all year: ‘Why not state,’” Cipriano said Thursday. “I think because of the fact that a team from here has done it, the kids not only think they can do it, they know that it can be done. I’m hoping they’ve drawn motivation from that.
“Knowing people who have done it makes the kids realize it is possible.”
One of those players on the team was guard Jacob Garcia, older brother of junior post Matt Garcia, who is coming off a 16-point performance in the Warriors’ win over Falfurrias on Tuesday night.
Garcia said earlier this year he would like for the team to make its own memorable run.
So drawing inspiration from that 2009 team could go a long way.
“Jacob just told me we have to trust each other, play aggressive, but smart so our key players can stay out of foul trouble,” Garcia said. “That really helps the whole team, because we know that if the 2009 team made it to state, we can too, applying things he tells us to our game.”
Early in the playoffs, the Warriors learned that the hard way. Garcia and Leo Lara sat a lot of the second half against Odem in the area round.
That was corrected Tuesday when Lara’s 20 points and Garcia’s 16 led the Warriors to an easy 76-47 win over Falfurrias.
They will need a lot of that same aggression when they face a senior-laden Goliad team that has just four losses on the season and applies the press defense much like the Warriors.
While it’s a tough matchup, Cipriano feels his team can hang with anyone as long as they play to their capabilities.
“That’s the reason we played a grueling pre-district schedule,” Cipriano said. “The kids have the confidence to know that we can play with anybody, so long as they bring their A game. I just tell the kids to go out and do what they do so we can go up there and have a good showing.
“Hopefully it’s good enough to win one, if not, two.”
MORE THAN LARA
After Tuesday’s win, Cipriano said this year his team is more confident taking open shots and punishing the opposition for keying in solely on junior guard Leo Lara.
While Lara led the Valley in scoring and is the team’s biggest offensive threat, the pieces around him have come to play these playoffs, proving that they’re more than just Lara.
With Lara sitting a majority of the second half of the area playoffs, it was sophomore guard AB Losoya leading the scoring charge in the Warriors’ 47-44 victory over Odem.
On Tuesday night against Falfurrias, apart from Lara’s 20 points and Garcia’s16, Losoya dropped in 12 points for another double-figure night.
Senior guard Manny Sanchez came off the bench to drop in four triples on his way to a 14-point night.
More of the same could help send the Warriors to Saturday’s regional finals.