BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | STAFF WRITER
HIDALGO — The game was high-flying, action-packed and full of 3-pointers, but the difference was the defense.
With 5:12 left in the third, Port Isabel sophomore forward Cole Pickerton knocked down a jumper to extend the Tarpons’ lead over the Hidalgo Pirates to three points. That woke up the Valley’s fifth best scorer, junior forward Daniel Rinza. He scored the game’s next nine points, single-handedly lifting the Tarpons to a 10-point lead.
“We called a timeout, and we don’t usually call timeouts,” Hidalgo coach Gus Sanchez said.
In the huddle, Hidalgo senior guard Andy Flores heard a strong message from his teammate, senior forward Alexis Gonzalez.
“Alexis called it out, he said ‘I am going to stay on him. I’m not going to let him shoot. I’m not going to let him score,’” Flores recalled. “And ever since he did that, I didn’t see (Rinza) do anything else.”
The next 39 seconds proved Gonzalez right, as he locked down Rinza, and allowed his team to get going.
Senior Forward Saul Arjona hit a 3 to start the run, but what woke up the entire gym was the 3-pointer sophomore guard Gus Sanchez hit on the next possession. He cut the lead down to four, and then the Pirates took off.
“As soon as I let it go, I saw it in the air, and I said that is money right there,” Sanchez said.
In 106 seconds, the Pirates went from down 10 to a tie at 38. Hidalgo carried that momentum into the fourth and took the game over. They held PI to just eight fourth-quarter points. The Pirates (25-6, 11-0) took control and beat the Tarpons (24-6, 9-2) 60-46, on Friday night in a Class 32-4A matchup.
“After halftime, (Coach Sanchez) told us, we have to pick it up,” Flores said. “Either you want to share the championship or you want to be the champions.”
Sanchez, who is the Valley’s 10th leading scorer, scored five of the 10 points in the run to end the third quarter.
The Pirates knew this game was crucial. Port Isabel was the only one-loss team left in 32-4A coming into Friday’s game. Now the Pirates hold a two-game advantage over the second-place team with just three games left on the schedule. Technically, they can’t be crowned just yet, but the Pirates’ win puts them in line to take home yet another district title.
“You have to give a lot of credit to PI, they came to play,” coach Sanchez said. “It was a championship atmosphere for a championship game.”
The defense was fierce from wire to wire. Both teams pressed quite often, and both teams created plenty of turnovers.
The Pirates knew this game was big, so they studied the tape from the first matchup very closely. Hidalgo won the first meeting, 60-54, on Jan. 8. Hidalgo was also down in that game and needed a late push to win it. Gonzalez was vital in that game was well, leading the team with 14 points.
On Friday, he scored eight. Flores had 12, and Sanchez led the way with 15. For the Tarpons, Rinza finished with 18, but no other player broke double digits. Pickerton had 9.
In studying the film of that game, the Pirates knew that Port Isabel had three talented forwards in Rinza, Pickerton and junior center Jason Lowe. For Hidalgo, meanwhile, the younger Sanchez described his team’s starting unit as “four smalls and one big.”
Instead of adjusting to the opponent, Hidalgo used its defense and speed to force Port Isabel into a smaller unit.
“We know that if we run them up and down, we can get them tired,” the younger Sanchez said. “That is our motto, just keep on running.”
Port Isabel was at its best offensively when all three forwards were on the court, but they couldn’t run that unit for long, because the mismatches at the other end hurt the Tarpons.
A key to the Tarpons’ bigger lineup is the rebounding advantage, but Hidalgo utilizes a team rebounding philosophy, and no one epitomizes that more than Sanchez. While he was the smallest player on the court, he hauled in six rebounds.
“We needed those, and he hit some big shots there,” Coach Sanchez said of his son. “He is a player, and he has been a player for us for the last two years.”
The Pirates aren’t looking ahead just yet, and they know they have to take care of business, but with the playoffs looming so large, the players can’t wait to make an impact.
“The last couple years haven’t gone our way,” Gonzalez said. “We really want to go far.”