By EDWARD SEVERN, Special to RGVSports.com
LA FERIA — Two East Valley teams, the Harlingen South Hawks and the Brownsville St. Joseph Bloodhounds, squared off for the C.E. Vail tournament championship Saturday.
The Bloodhounds prevailed 59-41 in an extremely competitive championship game. The scoreline suggests something different, but for the majority of the game every rebound, loose ball and point was highly contested and earned. The game was so intense that at one point during the third quarter a South player threw up on the court.
The Bloodhounds struck hard first, opening a 12-2 lead on the Hawks. Senior Luis Rios got the Hawks back in the game and took the lead at 15-12, scoring 11 points on the run including two big 3-pointers.
Bloodhounds junior Gerry Martinez can pull up anywhere on the court, and he did that to regain the lead at 17-15. South senior forward Ddeen Badiru answered shortly after with a couple of great drives and a nice assist to put the Hawks back up 22-19 late in the second quarter.
Bloodhounds senior Martin Tapia’s bucket gave SJA a 23-22 lead at the half.
South came out of the halftime break strong with a couple of good baskets. Steven Ortegon, Dylan Maldonado and Ethan Salinas all had some nice buckets. Another deep 3 by Martinez tied the game at 30.
During the third quarter, the Bloodhounds decided to open the court with a full-court press. Until that, both teams played primarily in their halfcourt set ups.
The press worked, and St. Joseph went on a 22-0 run that stretched into the fourth quarter. Senior Josh Cisneros had four big baskets at the rim. A couple of his layups had some nasty english on them. Bernie Garza hit from beyond the arc and Luigi Cristiano finished at the rim with some nice post moves.
“We just wanted to pick up the pressure to see if they can handle it and to get our guys going,” St. Joseph coach Sam Lucio said. “We were a little sluggish, so I wanted to get our guys going. It was something we talked about at halftime as an adjustment.”
Badiru ended the Bloodhounds’ run with a couple of free throws. Trying to come back down 49-32 with only a few minutes left is a lot to ask for any team. The Bloodhounds took care of the ball and saw out the victory.
Two straight weekends has resulted in two tournament championships for the Bloodhounds.
“Winning tournaments is not easy to do, it is a grind,” Lucio said. “Sometimes you play two games a day, we have some kids a little banged up. They wanted it, they want to prove that they can play with anyone in the Valley, and when we get into the playoffs we want to do well against the teams across state.
“We have a couple of tough games this week. We have another tournament coming up in a couple of weeks in San Antonio with a couple of teams from out of state. It is going to be competitive. We want to be peaking before district.”
The Bloodhounds have another month before they start district and a decent amount of games.
The Hawks play Tuesday at home against PSJA Memorial and will begin district play on New Year’s Eve.
“Anytime you play in a championship game it is big, you can not simulate that. It is like a playoff game,” Harlingen South coach Brian Molina said. “We got to go up against a really talented St. Joseph team. I am happy we are in this situation, our kids played hard until the end. This is going to be a great building block for our team.”