By ROY HESS
Staff Writer
The girls opened their basketball season last week.
This week, it’s the boys’ turn.
The Porter Cowboys and Rivera Raiders tipped off the new season Tuesday at Porter.
The Cowboys broke out of a 28-28 halftime deadlock to win the season opener 63-49.
“More important than anything, I think we were able to get the ball down low to (our big man) Benji (Eckersley, who finished with a team-high 14 points),” Porter coach Luis Garza said. “That’s what we want to do, and I think we did a good job of getting the ball where we want it to go tonight.
“We didn’t do all that well with our free throws (though),” Garza added. “We just have to get our guys a little more composed. This was the first game, and they were a little rattled.”
The Cowboys jumped out to a 10-0 lead and were up 17-12 by the end of the first quarter. After the tie at 28 at intermission, Porter outpointed Rivera 24-13 during the third period to take a 52-41 advantage into the final quarter.
Porter outscored the visiting team 35-21 during the second half.
“We played hard and we played tough, but I’m still missing a couple of players,” Rivera coach Saul Villarreal said. “We got into foul trouble (and had two players foul out), but really what hurt us was our free throws. (It seemed) we couldn’t make a free throw even if our life depended on it. At one time we were 3-for-13, so that hurt us.”
Besides Eckersley’s 14 points, also for Porter, Mundo Martinez scored 12 points with four 3-pointers and Rocco Almanzan added 10. Also for Porter, Kevin Garcia, Aaron Morales and Chris Orozco each contributed eight points, with Morales and Orozco each netting a 3-pointer.
For Rivera, Johan Morales scored 17 points with three 3-pointers and Michael Duran added 11 points with a pair of 3-pointers. Also for the Raiders, Leo Reyes and Dylan Lustick contributed nine and eight points, respectively, with Lustick making a 3-pointer.
Rivera’s biggest lead of four points, 28-24, came with 1:18 left before the half, when Reyes scored on a drive. From there, two free throws by Porter’s Morales and one by teammate Anthony Andrade helped create the tie at 28 at intermission.
The Cowboys outscored the Raiders 11-3 to start the third quarter and took control.
Porter’s largest lead of 16 points, 61-45, came when Garcia converted both ends of a 1-and-1 free-throw situation with 3:42 to play.
The Cowboys and Raiders meet again in the first round of the Brownsville Tournament at 6 p.m. Thursday at Brownsville Veterans Memorial.
“We’re going to have a rematch real soon,” Garza said.