Led by their defense and 23 points from senior Mac Perez, the Cardinals downed the Bruni Badgers 60-24 and secured the fourth and final playoff spot in District 32-2A Tuesday night at La villa High School.
The Cards are returning to the postseason for the first time since 2014 when they beat Premont 49-46 in bi-district play before falling to Weimar in the area round.
For the Cardinals, grabbing the last playoff spot wasn’t easy as they weathered an early storm and finished the year winning their final two games to avoid a play-in situation.
“It’s a relief to make the playoffs because we started off struggling and missing players due to grades,” said senior Raven Garza. “We practiced hard, we played hard and now, we can show what we got.”
Still, first-year head coach Luis Rodriguez was glad his team got a chance to continue its season.
“It’s an exciting part of it and these kids worked hard from the start; they deserve to have the feeling of being one of the four playoff teams.” Rodriguez said.
“We had a few bumps early on, but the players responded and made it happen. However, we aren’t content with just making the postseason, we want to go in there and make a bang.”
Their first shot to do just that will be Monday night when they open the postseason against Port Aransas.
The two will tip off at 6:30 p.m. in Bishop.
On Tuesday, the Cards opened the game with a strong press on defense and forced the Badgers into turnovers early. Bruni managed just two points in the first quarter and 10 in the first half.
“The first time we played (Bruni), we beat them with hustle,” said Garza. “That was really the key against them tonight because by the second half, they tired and it allowed us to run around them.”
In the second quarter it was all Perez, who finished the half with 14 of his 23 points and had success throughout the night getting baskets on the fast break.
Aiding him was sophomore guard Refugio Montelongo, who finished the night with 11 points and eight steals.