By CLAIRE CRUZ, Staff Writer
The Brownsville St. Joseph Bloodhounds have played some tight games in this young season, and they fought through another Friday when they traveled to Brownsville Hanna.
The Bloodhounds and Golden Eagles played full-throttle from tipoff to the final whistle, swapping scoring runs and leads through all four quarters. Relentless defense and clutch 3-point shooting from Lucky Edge and Jimmy Navarro ultimately gave Brownsville St. Joseph enough cushion to pull away and earn a 56-53 win.
“It feels good,” SJA coach Sam Lucio said. “I’ve been telling the boys, if we want to win a district championship, we have to learn how to win on the road. We’ve had a hard time the last couple years, so today’s a good step for the future, hopefully.”
Both teams turned the ball over several times during the first quarter as they adjusted to the speed of the game. Hanna coach Fermin Lucio said the Golden Eagles had some new faces on the roster and he was pleased with the way his team adapted as they tried some new rotations.
Hanna passed the ball well to draw out the Bloodhounds defense and create open looks down low, which allowed Charles Thirlwall and Joe Munoz to score eight of Hanna’s 12 first-quarter points from inside the paint. Thirlwall and Ricardo Roman’s dominance on the boards and the speed of Jared Zarate and Diego Escovar sparked an 8-0 scoring run to open the second quarter, putting the Golden Eagles on top 18-10.
Sam Lucio called a timeout to stop the momentum and gave his Bloodhounds a simple yet effective message to reel in the energy and keep pulling the trigger on good looks.
“I felt like we were a little too excited. I told them, ‘We’re getting the good shots we want, they’re just not going in, so let’s just keep doing the same thing and the shots will fall,’” Sam Lucio said. “So far this season, we’ve been a pretty good third-quarter team and we come out of halftime and start hitting. This time, we started hitting a little earlier, which is good for us.”
The Bloodhounds turned things up a notch defensively, led by the quick hands of Navarro, to limit Hanna’s scoring to five points after the timeout. As the defense forced turnovers and SJA bigs Luigi Cristiano and Tomas Edge started challenging Hanna’s rebounders, the Bloodhounds got the offense going. Navarro scored six points and Lucky Edge and Cristiano both hit 3-pointers to take a 26-25 lead at halftime.
The second half was a back-and-forth affair. The Bloodhounds opened up their lead to seven points, but consecutive scoring possessions for Hanna and a 3-pointer from Ramon Reyes quickly tied things up at 32 midway through the third quarter. SJA maintained a slim, 43-41 lead heading to the fourth, but the Golden Eagles went on another scoring run to take a 51-45 advantage with five minutes to play. Thirwall, Escovar and Emi Hernandez led the effort to swing things in Hanna’s favor.
The Bloodhounds responded with tenacious defense and moved the ball around to create opportunities for their outside shooters. After a few errant passes resulted in turnovers, SJA settled down and hit big shots. Cristiano held down the paint and rebounded well after Tomas Edge left the game due to an injury, and the power forward showed off his range to hit a 3-pointer.
Lucky Edge and Navarro both turned steals into 3s to put SJA on top, 54-51, with less than one minute to play. The Bloodhounds passed the ball around, forcing Hanna to foul, and Navarro converted at the charity stripe to close out the win.
“Our offensive philosophy is we want to shoot a lot of 3s and get layups,” Sam Lucio said. “I think we have the weapons to spread out the court and drive, and kick it out to the 3-point shooters, that’s how we want to play this year.”
Lucky Edge led all scorers with 13 points, and he hit three of SJA’s eight 3-pointers. Navarro contributed 12 points, and Cristiano and Cisneros both contributed eight. Cristiano and Rafa Varela both hit twice from behind the arc.
Hernandez paced Hanna with 12 points, followed by Thirlwall’s 11 and 10 from Escovar, one of the players that just made the transition from the gridiron to the hardwood. Fermin Lucio credited Escovar with making an immediate impact.
“I was really impressed with our guys coming out here and fighting,” Fermin Lucio said. “They competed well, so a lot of positives to carry over. It’s always a good matchup when we play St. Joe, and they brought it. Our kids played well … we just missed some second-chance points that we got that would’ve really extended our lead, and we just lost their shooters a couple times there at the end and they hit big shots, so more power to them.”