By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
McALLEN — Some time during last week’s area-round playoff game, McAllen Rowe coach Jose Luis Yebra scanned the crowd and the scorers table, only to see a fraction of the media presence he anticipated.
Going up against Weslaco High, Yebra heard whispers that his Warriors were bound to lose. That they didn’t possess the height, and therefore the talent, to stay competitive. And that the Panthers, district champions in 31-6A, would make it a less appealing matchup than the other 11 on hand last Friday.
Yebra, however, disagreed.
“I told the kids, we do have talent,” he said. “It’s undersized talent, but we do have talent.”
That association between height and skill is what Yebra suspects might have led fans to discount his Warriors, even as they beat Weslaco to advance to today’s regional quarterfinals against Laredo Alexander.
Despite much of the inside game that has come to define the program for much of Yebra’s 17-year tenure, Rowe (25-10) has gained entry into the playoffs each time. Even in a transition year in 2014-15, where they veered away from an inside-outside game to one that centered almost exclusively on perimeter shooting and cuts to the basket, the Warriors continued to find ways to win.
Now with improved play from 6-foot post Freddy Ayala, Rowe has the type of rebounding that affords it second- and third-chance scoring opportunities for their burgeoning guards, Alex Keith and Daniel Sotuyo.
“When shots aren’t falling, we go to our bigs,” Sotuyo said. “They take care of the dirty work.”
All three are averaging career-highs in scoring, and Ayala has almost doubled his rebounding haul from 5.5 boards a game last season to 10.3 this year.
Where in past seasons Ayala might have corralled rebounds and impatiently thrown it away, the junior is now more under control, whether kicking it out or taking his time in the post. Players like Keith (12.9 points per game) and Sotuyo (14.8 ppg) have reaped those benefits.
“It’s the same style of play as last season,” Ayala said. “My teammates are just giving me the ball more. I’ve been rebounding a lot better. And it’s just paid off.”
The improved guard play has not been lost of the coaching staff. Sotuyo has evolved from a dedicated 3-point shooter to a player who could better decide when to hoist a shot and when to attack the basket. And Keith, for his part, has given the Warriors the benefit of flexibility by playing either guard position.
They’ve come together to lead Rowe into the regional quarterfinals for the first time since the 2012-13 season, when the Warriors boasted a bruising frontcourt led by Brian Beltran, an All-Valley Player of the Year. This unit, by contrast, has been fueled by the guard position, with the 5-10 Keith and 5-9 Sotuyo.
Warranted or not, the Warriors believe that has factored into the some of the outside skepticism regarding their success and potential this year.
“I think it’s awesome, though,” Sotuyo said. “When we beat teams that are ranked higher than us, I think it’s great for us mentally. We rise to the challenge.
“A lot of people were saying Weslaco was going to beat us. We used that to play together, and I think it helped a lot. We played relaxed, calm. Not a lot of media was there, and Coach told us about that, to use it as motivation.”
Though the team has more or less the same size as last year, Yebra said his players have matured. A sophomore-junior group in 2014-15 that was unpredictable at times, given their dependency on outside shooting, has blossomed into a steady group with a more refined offense. One that Yebra says “plays with a lot of heart” and “with something to prove to people” each night.
They were the only Valley team to beat Edinburg Vela, ranked No. 1 all year by RGVSports.com, and now they hope to carry some momentum from a game last week in which some considered them underdogs.
“I think they feel like nobody respected them, and they’ve beaten the teams they’ve beaten just to prove a point,” Yebra said. “Even then, some people don’t give them credit. But I’ll play anybody with this group of kids.
“These kids can play, and we’re just very happy with how far they’ve come.”