By MARK MOLINA | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Despite trailing the Los Fresnos Falcons for all but a minute, the Hanna Golden Eagles found themselves down just two following a Victor Campos 3-pointer with 1:18 to play.
It would be the Falcons, however, who would deliver in the clutch as a pair of Elian Gonzalez free throws and a late bucket by Lino Yzaguirre gave the visitors the cushion they needed to hold on for a 58-52 District-32-6A win over the Eagles Tuesday afternoon at Hanna High School.
“It was a scary win, but at the end,” said Yzaguirre, who finished with nine points. “We knew we had to D up real good … tight … because (Hanna cut the lead to two). We didn’t want that so we kept on pushing and pushing, got those layups and got the win.”
Hanna battled back from an eight-point, fourth-quarter deficit, but the Los Fresnos defense held them to just two shots from the field over the final four and a half minutes.
For Marco Hinojosa, the defensive stand was a big one, considering his team didn’t hit a shot from the field in the fourth quarter until the 2:49 mark.
“At the end of the day, Hanna is a good team — they’re well coached,” the coach said. “At the end of the day, we’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day. We told the kids to find a way to win and they found a way to win.”
Hanna (0-2 32-6A) trailed by as many as eight multiple times and by as many as nine, but made runs to keep the game within reach. That included a 6-0 spurt led by a pair of buckets from Jaime Rucoba to help them stay afloat in the mid-fourth quarter.
Eagles head coach Fermin Lucio said the Falcons (2-0 32-6A) simply made the last run.
“I’ve always read and been told that basketball is a game of runs,” he said. “We made a run to get back in it there in the fourth and (Los Fresnos) made the last run there at the end of the fourth quarter, so they are ultimately going to come out with the victory.
“I’m proud of my boys for not giving up. Los Fresnos is a great ball club and we fought our way and stayed with them the whole game and had a chance there at the end to win it.”
Los Fresnos will look to stay perfect in district play when it hosts Harlingen High on Friday night. Hanna will host San Benito, also Friday.
The Falcons looked primed to light up the scoreboard in the first half, hitting six treys. Three of those came from Jordan Urbina, who posted 11 first-half points.
An Urbina triple made it 21-12 early in the second, but seven points from Victor Campos fueled a 14-7 Hanna run to make it 28-26 to end the first half.
Hanna’s defense would take the 3 away over the final 16 minutes of play as Los Fresnos made no shots from beyond the arc, sparking a physical second half in the paint.
“Los Fresnos made some open shots in the first half, but we have some of the best big men in the Valley and we wanted to make it tough, aggressive game,” Lucio said. “Los Fresnos made the shots when they were open, so more power to them.”
The Falcons answered to call to open the half and pushed the lead to eight attacking the basket, led by Gabe Martinez and Andrew Carrizales who scored six and seven points in the quarter, respectively.
“We did hit a lot of 3s in the second half, but we are able to attack the basket,” Hinojosa said. “If we have open jumpers, we’ll take them, but they didn’t give us those in the second half, so we attacked the basket and took whatever the defense gives us.”
Hanna opened the fourth on an 11-4 run and made it 50-49 on a Jose Torre trey with 3:33 to go, but Los Fresnos outscored Hanna 8-3 the rest of the way.
Carrizales led Los Fresnos with 17 points, followed by Urbina with 14 and Martinez’ 11.
Rucoba scored 16 to lead the Eagles and Campos added 14.