FREDDY GONZALEZ | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — Christian Espinosa scored 14 points, Kobe Patterson hit 13 and Ubaldo Pequeno contributed 11, as Edinburg North defeated Harlingen South 48-37 Tuesday night in a Class 6A bi-district playoff game at the Hawks gymnasium.
After the halftime break, Edinburg North’s Brandon De La Cruz scored six consecutive points as the Cougars outscored the Hawks 16-2 in the quarter, to open up a 14-point lead.
“We knew it was going to be a battle,” said Edinburg North head coach Rudy Garcia. “We’re good and they’re good, so I knew we were going to have to change it up a bit, but we switched from man to zone and it seemed to slow them down a bit, and gave us some opportunities to score also.”
A free-throw from South’s Luke Bradford and two baskets, including one three pointer from teammate Noah Perez, helped the Hawks take a 6-3 advantage midway through the first. But Espinosa and Pequeno combined to take a momentary lead before Harlingen South’s Darren Perez hit a shot to pull the lead back in the Hawks’ favor at 10-9.
In the second, the Cougars took another brief 14-11 lead behind buckets from Pegueno, Patterson and Espinosa. However, a three pointer from Darren Perez and a shot from Noah Perez gave South a slim 15-14 lead heading into the half.
“We’ve been kind of a second-half team a lot,” said Garcia. “I told them, ‘The score is 2-0 so let’s come out and play and do what we normally do,’ and the kids came out relaxed and picked up the intensity and got some easy baskets here and there. But I think our defense won us the game tonight.”
After the halftime break, South went flat while the Cougars couldn’t miss. Edinburg scored 16 unanswered points before Harlingen South’s Sean Turrubintes scored the Hawks’ only points of the period with just over a minute left in the third quarter.
Entering the fourth down 30-18, Harlingen South went to work and scored four quick points before Noah Perez came up with a big steal and took it down the court for a layup, cutting Edinburg North’s lead down to 30-24.
Unfortunately for South, that was the closest the Hawks would come as the Cougars opened the lead back to 13 points behind five points by Patterson, including one three and four free throws from Matt Trevino.
Edinburg North now faces McAllen Memorial in the area round of the playoffs later this week. The Hawks, meanwhile, conclude their season at 24-9.