BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | STAFF WRITER
The RGVBCA Class 6A girls All-Star game was a back-and-forth affair.
Neither team pulled away immediately, allowing the drama to build toward the end.
The game at Weslaco East had great tension and excitement, but in the end the West team took it 52-44 over the East team on Sunday. The teams were populated exclusively by seniors as part of the rules of the game.
In the middle of the third quarter, Weslaco High’s Gabby Garza led a run by controlling the rebounding game on defense and scoring on offense.
“Garza is a hustler,” West coach John David Salinas (Edinburg High) said. “She does a great job around the basket. She doesn’t get pushed around or boxed out.”
Her effort earned her the MVP of the East team. But, the run she led in the third quarter fell short.
“We were able to counter that with some great play from Victoria Alaniz of McAllen High in the fourth quarter. We were able to play a little tougher against Gabby and control the rebounding game.”
The biggest advantage the West team had was its perimeter defense. The combination of Edinburg North’s Tiffany Chapa (West’s MVP), McAllen Memorial’s Victoria Izaguirre and Edinburg Vela’s Jaida Muhammad and Julissa Cuellar gave the East guards all they could handle and then some.
The excitement was amplified for Salinas, who was coaching his first ever All-Star game.
“I appreciate the association for giving myself and my assistant George Olvera the opportunity to coach the West team,” Salinas said. “There are a lot of quality coaches out there, and it’s the first time I have coached an all-star game as a head coach. It was fun.”
Salinas was excited when he saw his roster and even more excited when he was able to squeeze out some time for practices around the players’ busy spring schedules.
“You play against these kids all the time, you see them at tournaments,” Salinas said. “But now, you finally get to know them a little bit. It was very enjoyable. They are a great group of kids. They all represented their schools very well.”
FLIPPING THE SWITCH
The excitement continued in the boys game.
Again it was back and forth action throughout the game, but then it got very close at the end.
The West team had a pretty steady lead in the fourth quarter, until with just a few minutes left, the East team took a 71-70 edge. Once that happened, the intensity ratcheted up.
“Daniel (Sotuyo of McAllen Rowe) got a couple of steals and Ryan (Garza of Edinburg Vela) hit some big shots, as did Daniel,” West team coach Jose Luis Yebra (McAllen Rowe) said. “I think they saw ‘Oh we could to lose, they took the lead,’ and they stepped it up. I could see the competitiveness out there. And they got the lead and built it up.”
Once the West team regained the lead, they pushed it back up to about a 10-point margin and held onto the advantage for the rest of the game. The West team won 93-86 on Sunday at Weslaco East.
Yebra’s approach to building out the lineup and rotations was to focus on filling all of the positions first and then mix and match during the game.
“I had to make sure we had point guards and players at every position,” Yebra said “It didn’t matter who was starting, I wanted to make sure we had the right players at the right positions.”
The deadly backcourt combo of Sotuyo and Garza fueled the West team, but it was another facet of the game that Yebra pointed to as the biggest advantage.
“I think height was our advantage,” Yebra said. “We had a lot more height than the East did and we were able to control the boards.”
Garza and Sotuyo closed out the game by hitting a barrage of 3-pointers, and either one of them could have earned MVP, in Yebra’s opinion.
“They asked me if I had a pick, but I told (the RGVBCA staff on hand) Daniel is one of my kids so I don’t want to choose anybody,” Yebra said. “I told them to pick and they could do whatever they wanted. I just stayed out of it. So, they picked Ryan Garza.”
The game marked the end of two eras for the West team. Garza and Alec De La Cruz, both of Edinburg Vela, played their final high school game together. The two have played together for more than a decade.
Yebra also had one last ride with one of his players.
“It was fun to coach Daniel,” Yebra said. “It’s always fun to see your kids in the all-star game.”