MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — For a quarter, the San Benito Greyhounds stood toe-to-toe with the Harlingen South Hawks.
Then, it all unraveled.
The Hawks finished the second quarter on a 16-2 run and never looked back as they easily dismissed the Greyhounds 73-37 Friday night at the Harlingen South gymnasium.
The Hawks (19-7, 7-4) came out a bit slow to start the game and trailed for a good part of the first period. But after making adjustments and settling down, the shots fell and the Greyhounds (6-18, 1-10) began to turn the ball over.
“The kids turned it up defensively a little bit and I think we contested more shots,” South head coach Brian Molina said. “We tried to get over over-anxious. I told the kids to relax, let the game come to them and let the game come to them.
“I urged them to keep getting stops and the shots would begin to fall and fortunately, tonight it did.”
The win helped the Hawks keep pace with Harlingen, which was tied with the Hawks going into Friday night.
The two will meet this Tuesday night at Harlingen High School in what is now a pivotal matchup. South won the first matchup 45-34.
“All records go out the window when it’s a cross-town rival,” Molina said. “Harlingen High is a great team and coach (Greg) Yates does a good job with them and I’m sure they’ll be ready for us after the first (meeting). We’re both playing for playoff spots and it should bring out the best in both teams.”
On Friday, the Greyhounds led 10-5 early on, but a Luke Bradford three gave the Hawks their first lead of the game and capped off an 8-2 run. Bradford finished with a team-high 19 points.
San Benito scored just four points in the quarter and was outscored 16-4.
Coming out of the half, the ‘Hounds weren’t much better, scoring just five points in the third quarter. Their troubles extended to the line where they went 10 of 23.
The Hawks led by as many as 37 at one point in the fourth.
While San Benito did not have they did not have any players in double digits, South had three.
Noah Perez finished with 13 and Nate Rodriguez hit three treys and finished with 10 points on the night to assist Bradford.
Mario Aguirre led San Benito with eight points.