PHARR — Entering PSJA North’s non-district game against Edinburg Vela on Tuesday night, junior guard Elijah De La Garza had yet to take the court this season with his Raiders teammates due to a hand injury.
But De La Garza looked right at home in his return to the hardwood as his game-high 24 points led the Raiders to a 75-67 victory over the SaberCats at PSJA North HIgh School.
“It felt good to be back on the court, man. I was out for a while (due to injury), so it feels great being back on the court with the team,” De La Garza said.
The Raiders had to work from beginning to end for their win, however, as the SaberCats came with everything they had. After going into the locker rooms tied at 27, the third quarter featured nine different lead changes between Edinburg Vela and PSJA North.
The SaberCats had four scorers finish with double-figures led by Alex Cantu’s 20 points, Kaleb Coronado’s 15, Tony Requena’s 12 and Bobby Espericueta’s 11.
Entering the final quarter trailing 45-44, the Raiders received sparks from De La Garza, post Iziaah Rangel and the shooting of Matthew Cantu, who drained back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Raiders a 56-53 lead midway through the fourth.
“It got our adrenaline going and helped us out big time,” De La Garza said of Cantu’s long-range shots.
Rangel saved his best quarter for last as he dropped eight of his 20 total points in the fourth to help seal the deal for the Raiders.
“I just had really had to get more comfortable with everything, and you know, just by my team getting me open and letting me do my thing,” Rangel said.
De La Garza also delivered seven points in the final quarter.
“Killer mentality. We all have that, and that’s what got us the win,” he said.
PSJA North head coach Jaime Gongora said his team’s focus was to lock in on the defensive end.
“We’re really working on our defense and they’ve got two really good guards, and so our focus was to try to slow them down. I knew we weren’t going to stop them, but just slow them down a little bit,” Gongora said. “I thought our kids fought hard, and when we made mistakes, they made us pay for it, but overall, our effort was pretty good.”
With De La Garza and Rangel providing an inside-outside presence for the Raiders, PSJA North feels it can combine to be a dangerous duo each time it takes the floor and improve with every passing game.
“This was only our third game and we got so many new bodies that we’re trying to mesh together, and of course Elijah’s role now changes. Iziaah can really dominate a game at times, and I thought they played well together despite it being Elijah’s first game back,” Gongora said. “I liked what I saw. They’re sharing the ball and they’re working really hard on defense.”
“This PSJA North team can be very good,” Rangel said. “We’re good at working together, you know, communicating what we need to do and we’ll be successful.”