SAN PERLITA — The Bishop Badgers buried the North Mission IDEA Warriors 103-68 behind a barrage of 3-pointers in their Region IV-3A area round playoff matchup on Thursday at San Perlita High School.
It’s the second consecutive season the Warriors have lost in the area round.
The Badgers drilled eight first-quarter 3s and outscored North Mission 33-7 during the opening eight minutes to set the tone from the start. Four different players hit from long range during the first. The Warriors trailed 81-30 at the half.
“We ran into a really great team tonight and they shot lights out on us that first half. We couldn’t recover from that,” North Mission IDEA head coach Isai Cabrera said. “They threw us off with their press defense and we were never able to get back in time. They’re a great team, they played a hell of a game and all credit goes to them.”
The Warriors struggled breaking the Badgers’ full-court press. Turnover after turnover led to easy Bishop buckets and a ballooning advantage on the scoreboard.
North Mission was in comeback mode from the opening minutes and finally put together a 38-point fourth quarter.
Raul Bejarano led North Mission with 27 points, while his twin brother Manuel Bejarano poured in 23.
Donny Thomas ignited the fire for the Badgers with 15 of his 27 points coming in the first quarter during the 33-7 period. Thomas finished with 27 points and 12 rebounds. Bishop’s Isaac Colunga and Ray De La Garza added 23 and 19, respectively.
The District 31-3A champion North Mission IDEA Warriors finish their season 26-9 overall and 20-0 in league play.
“I had the junior varsity here on the bench. They saw everything that happened,” Cabrera said. “We got to go back to the drawing board for this new offseason, hit the weight room and get faster and stronger. This is what it takes to get to the next level. We got to be ready to play defense from the get-go, good passing and good shooting — that’s what it’s going to take.”
Bishop will face the winner between Santa Rosa and Santa Gertrudis, who are scheduled to play at 7:30 tonight at Falfurrias High School.