By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
HARLINGEN — For as well as Sharyland Pioneer played through one half — boxing out, scoring in the paint, tempting Corpus Christi Miller to settle for outside jumpers — it still trailed by one point heading into halftime.
As soon as things veered the other way, the Diamondbacks saw their deficit balloon beyond the point of return during a 56-41 loss Saturday in the Class 5A area round at Harlingen South.
Pioneer struggled to get much interior scoring after intermission, and the Buccaneers closed out the game playing more efficiently as they secured their ticket to the regional quarterfinals, where they will take on Laredo Nixon.
The Diamondbacks (22-12) were outscored 31-17 in the latter two quarters, including 18-9 in the third. Miller’s Daryus Drake buried three 3-pointers after the break to finish with 11 points, and his Buccaneers teammates swarmed 6-foot-3 post Mike Madrigal the rest of the way.
The junior kept the Diamondbacks competitive throughout the opening half by scoring inside and hauling down rebounds. He put up left-handed spinning hooks and putback layups, but Miller made a concerted effort in the second half to slow him down.
Though Madrigal scored a team-high 16 points, including eight after the break, he came up empty several times underneath the hoop as Miller (25-8) began to pull away.
“We just started missing shots, and they started hitting big 3s,” Pioneer’s Jordan Wilson said. “They started calling a bunch of fouls. They called them late, too. But I’m not going to blame the refs. We didn’t make our shots.”
Wilson was the only other Diamondback player to score in double figures, pouring in 14 points. The rest of the team combined for 11 points.
Wilson was visibly hobbled during the second half, after bumping knees with an opposing player and later tweaking his ankle. By that point, though, the Diamondbacks were down 14 points and facing the inevitable.
During the first two quarters, Pioneer put up 14 and 10 points, respectively, but failed to hit double figures the rest of the way.
“We just didn’t finish inside,” Diamondbacks coach Rene Gonzalez said. “But give Corpus Christi Miller credit. They’re a great team, and they’re well-coached.”
Trailing 14-9 in the opening quarter, Miller coach Maurice Bastian instructed his team to stop shooting from behind the arc. It paid dividends from the Buccaneers, who used their possessions more effectively.
They turned to 6-foot-3 post Justice Watson, who scored a game-high 21 points, and received enough help from Eugene Nedd (10 points) and Eddie Rodriguez (8 points) to secure their fifth regional quarterfinal appearance in nine years.
“It was just a matter of sustaining their pressure,” Bastian said. “They did a good job with executing their offense early on. I thought they had us rattled, especially on the defensive end. But we kept our composure. The seniors stepped up. And we had to utilize our athleticism on the defensive end to create easy scoring opportunities.”
“It was all about being patient and executing,” Bastian added. “In the first half, we didn’t execute. We settled for the first shot. We were off from the perimeter. So we had to dump it inside and get easy scoring opportunities by pressing.”
The loss Saturday put an end to Sharyland Pioneer’s first postseason appearance in its second year as a school. It finished as the No. 2 seed in District 31-5A, behind Edinburg Vela, the No. 1-ranked team in the RGVSports.com poll.
And they did it with a group of eight underclassmen (seven juniors) that are slated to return next season.
“I just told the kids afterward to look around the gym and remember this experience,” Gonzalez said. “They have to get something from this loss. It’s going to take hard work, like we’ve done the past two years. But we just have to keep putting in time and get ready for next year.”