By EDWARD SEVERN, Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — The Harlingen South Hawks boys basketball team is coming off an up-and-down week heading into their clash with their crosstown rivals, the Harlingen High Cardinals.
The Hawks pulled off a close one against the Los Fresnos Falcons last Friday, 54-50, but fell 46-34 on Tuesday night against the Brownsville Hanna Golden Eagles. Hanna beat the Cardinals on Friday and the Hawks on Tuesday.
Harlingen High and Weslaco High have put some distance between themselves and the rest of the teams in District 32-6A. Both are 5-1 in district, but a bad week for either could get them caught up in the mix.
San Benito is 4-2 and playing solid. Rivera, Hanna and Harlingen South all have three losses and are capable of beating Weslaco High, San Benito or Harlingen High on a given night as they battle for fourth. Observers cannot write off Los Fresnos either.
“Obviously, you got to come ready to play every night. There are a lot of good teams in our district,” Hawks coach Brian Molina said. “Especially Harlingen High, every time you play Harlingen High all the records are out the door, and it becomes a rivalry game.
“I know they are excited to play us, and we are excited to play them. Because everybody is kind of beating each other, the more wins we could secure under our belt, the better off we are going to be. That is for every team in this district.”
Harlingen South has a solid squad, and that extends to its bench. Ddeen Badiru is a do-it-all forward. Badiru has some nice moves at the rim and works hard off the ball.
“We have had some tough losses, but nothing we cannot bounce back from. We just have to keep pushing forward and see what happens,” Badiru said. “It is one of our biggest games of the season, and we have been waiting for this since last year when they beat us with a buzzer-beater. We are pumped. We cannot wait to hit the court.”
South is loaded with talented and athletic guards, like most schools in the area. Jeremiah Rivera, Steven Ortegon, Ethan Salinas, Joel De Jesus, Dylan Maldonado and Luis Rios are most of the names that will start or rotate in for the Hawks.
“Our season is going OK, not the best like we expected, but we keep going every day and (are) just trying to get better,” Rivera said. “The Harlingen game is important. It is the next game on the schedule and it is at home, so we got to get this win.”
The Hawks and Cardinals will tip off at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at South’s gymnasium.