T.J. GARCIA | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
McALLEN — McAllen Rowe and McAllen Memorial had nothing to play for except pride.
But don’t tell the Warriors and Mustangs their crosstown contest was meaningless. It was played with the intensity of a rivalry — which it is.
Sophomore Darrin Everage scored 16 second-half points, including seven in the last 1:46, to power the McAllen Rowe Warriors past Memorial 59-55 on Tuesday, completing a season sweep of the Mustangs and claiming city bragging rights for another year.
“It’s a rivalry. It’s the McAllen schools. It’s great to be part of something special,” said Everage, who collected 12 rebounds and blocked four shots in front of about 1,200 fans in Rowe’s gym. “It came down to me to be more aggressive, and once I got going, I never stopped.”
With the victory, Rowe improves to 24-8 overall and 12-0 with an outright title in District 30-6A. The Warriors will move on to play Del Rio on Tuesday at Texas A&M International in Laredo in the first round of the playoffs. Memorial, meanwhile, finishes the regular season at 24-9 with a 9-3 record in district play and will face Laredo United or South San Antonio on Monday or Tuesday.
Rowe beat Memorial on a late shot by freshman Jose Yebra on Jan. 19 at the Mustangs’ gym . Looking to exact some revenge even with the district title out of reach, Memorial twice took nine-point leads over Rowe in the first half at 13-4 and 25-16.
Memorial guard Chris Flores had 15 first-half points with a deft outside touch. But the Warriors, mostly behind Derek Luna’s 13 first-half points, stormed back in the second quarter. Rowe closed the quarter on a four-minute, 12-0 run that was highlighted by guard Gabriel Bautista’s trey to make the score 28-25 as the halftime buzzer sounded.
Memorial started the third on an 8-2 run. The Mustangs scored 19 points in the period behind senior Josh Sanchez’s all-out hustle and Elian Reyna’s eight points. That knotted the teams up at 44 after three quarters.
Enter Everage.
After Sanchez made a layup to tie the score at 50 with four minutes remaining, Everage hit a hoop with 2:35 left. Everage added another bucket 50 seconds later to put Rowe up 54-50. After a couple of Memorial free throws, Everage hit two of his own from the charity stripe to make the score 56-52.
But then the Mustangs’ Ace Chavez hit only his second basket of the night, connecting on a 3-pointer with 35 second left to get Memorial within one. But Everage went back to line three more times, going 3 for 5, and ultimately sealed the game for Rowe.
“Anytime you play a Memorial or McHi, it doesn’t matter what you are playing for — whether it’s nothing or whatever — it’s important to play good, because both teams are going to bring their best,” Rowe coach Jose Luis Yebra said. “Both teams played very well, but we were able to get the win.”
Memorial coach Sam Cortez echoed coach Yebra’s comments and added the intracity games are fun and that both teams were fortunate no one was injured as the playoffs approach. The Mustangs’ Flores finished with 17 points, and Sanchez added 13 points with 13 boards and three blocks. Chris Melendez had 12 points, and Reyna chipped in 10.
Rowe got another all-around game from sophomore Derek Luna, who had 17 points and six rebounds. Freshman Yebra had 12.