By MARK MOLINA | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Trailing the Edcouch-Elsa Yellow Jackets by eight midway through the fourth quarter, the Lopez Lobos battled back over the next couple of minutes and tied the game on a J.C. Sosa three-pointer with 1:47 to play.
After both teams exchanged free throws, the Lobos came up clutch again on a J.J. Briones fast-break layup following a Yellow Jacket turnover with 1:06 to play that would give the Lobos the lead for good on their way to a 57-56 District 32-5A win Tuesday night at Lopez High School.
Lopez finished the game on a 13-4 run after trailing 52-44 with 4:33 to play.
Lobo head coach Neil Schuster said the run was his team showing they could finally deliver when it mattered most after a rough 0-3 start to district play.
“What happened today is what we’ve dealing with this year, having a lot of obstacles and a lot of injuries,” Lopez head coach Neil Schuster. “We had double-digit leads in two of the first three district games and we were finding ways to lose, but tonight we grew up as a young team and found a way to win — that’s big for us.”
After Briones failed to complete the three-point play for Lopez (8-14, 1-3) the Yellow Jackets (9-15, 2-2) went to the line twice in the final minute with a chance to tie the game only to go 1 for 4 in those attempts and 2 for 6 for the quarter.
After Bryan Guerra split free throws with 2.9 seconds to go, Jeremiah Caballero grabbed the offensive rebound, but missed a potential game-winning putback.
Edcouch-Elsa head coach Lalo Rios said his players simply couldn’t capitalize in the clutch.
“I think we let the moment get a little too big for us and we lost our focus and composure,” he said. “You have to give credit to Lopez, they played with a little more desire to come out and win that game.”
Leading the way for the Lobos was Armando Pecero with 20 points, including three makes from beyond the arc. Briones and Sosa finished with 11 and eight points, respectively.
While Sosa didn’t light up the scoreboard, Schuster said Sosa was big on both sides of the ball.
“JC Sosa stepped up in a big way for us tonight,” Schuster said. He got us some big stops and his three was a critical one to tie the game.”
Edcouch-Elsa’s Joseph Gonzalez posted 18 points on the night, but scored one point in the fourth quarter, going 1 for 4 from the line in the final eight minutes.
The game was a tight one in the first half as the teams exchanged the lead 10 times with neither leading by more than four points.
Trailing by two with 28 seconds to go in the half, Pecero hit a trey to put the Lobos up 34-32. The bucket gave him 12 points in the half and helped send the Lobos up at the break.
The Yellow Jackets opened the third on a 9-2 run and would outscore the Lobos 16-8 in the period led by a pair of 3-pointers from Gonzalez.
The Lobos struggled from the floor, hitting just twice from the field on 3s from Pecero and Briones which kept the lead from swelling to double digits.
“We had some turnovers and mental mistakes, but weren’t executing on offense and that carried over to the defensive end,” Schuster said. “That enabled (Edcouch-Elsa) to go on a little run.”
Lopez began to chip away after a pair of free throws and a Pecero three, which made it a 52-49 game with 3:17 to play.
Marcos Escobar put the Yellow Jackets up 54-49 with 2:25 to play, but that would be the last time they would hit from the field as the Lobos finished the game on an 8-2 spurt.