EDINBURG — The first meeting between Edinburg Vela and McAllen Memorial ended in an 18-point SaberCats victory Jan. 13 at McAllen Memorial High School.
The Mustangs returned the favor and took the SaberCats down on their home court this time around with a 65-51 win on the final day of the regular season.
The loss didn’t affect Edinburg Vela (24-13, 16-2) winning its second consecutive district championship and the program’s seventh since beginning competing at the varsity level in 2012. McAllen Memorial (27-6, 15-3) finishes as the No. 2 seed in District 31-5A.
“We knew how tough Vela was. They took it to us the first time, so we knew this would be a good, playoff-type-atmosphere battle before going into the playoffs,” Memorial head coach Rick Treviño said. “We did a good job of executing what we wanted to do, for the most part.”
The Mustangs and SaberCats were nearly deadlocked at the half, but McAllen Memorial took advantage of turnovers and turned them into points on the other end. They also were locked in from long range.
Mando Treviño led Memorial with 17 points and five steals. Three more Mustangs scored double figures as Evan McGurk scored 16, Rose Martinez added 14 and Caden Keller chipped in with 10.
“This win was huge for us. We got outhustled the first time, but we hustled the second time and we won the 50-50s,” Mando Treviño said. “We were prepared for them the first time, we just didn’t execute. This time, we made sure we executed and got the result we needed.”
“For us, it was all about getting those 50-50 balls,” Martinez said. “If we see a loose ball, we gotta dive for it and give all our effort to get it and do our best to minimize turnovers.”
Edinburg Vela was led by 14 points apiece from EJ Avelar and Axel Garza. Aiden Lopez added 12 points. Garza also finished with 13 rebounds for a double-double.
“They hit shots and shot the ball well. That’s a well-coached team — Coach T does a great job with them and they hit shots today,” Edinburg Vela head coach Lucio Rodriguez said. “I think we missed a couple fastbreaks early on that could have extended our lead, and we weren’t able to get that lead early on in the first half.”
Playoff details for the Mustangs and SaberCats are to be announced.