HARLINGEN — After two days of tournament basketball, crosstown rivals Harlingen and Harlingen South needed four more minutes to decide the 2014 Dr. Keillor Basketball Classic.
After getting put on their heels early, the Harlingen Cardinals tightened up the game in the second half and made key shots down the stretch to lift themselves over the Harlingen South 66-62 in overtime Saturday night at Harlingen High School South.
Harlingen could not score at the end of regulation, but Marc Nieto and Juan Cerrillo led the overtime charge.
Leading 63-62, Nieto missed an open shot, regrouped following a South turnover seconds later and put the game away for Harlingen with an easy layup and split free throws.
After trailing by as many as 10 points early, adjustments in the second quarter laid the foundation for a Harlingen comeback.
“(South) hit some big threes early and that made us change our man-to-man defense. We came out, put some pressure before the half and got some turnovers and caused South to mishandle the ball,” Harlingen head coach Greg Yates said.
“It was a highly competitive game against a well-coached team. The kids hung through a very exciting Keillor final.”
Cerrillo finished the game with 20 points and Nieto had seven.
South came out swinging as they did the entire tournament and led 12-2 in the first quarter, but Harlingen managed to stay a float and finish the quarter on an 8-3 run.
However, the hot shooting that gave South the lead, didn’t hold up late as the Hawks missed their last six shots of overtime, including four on one possession down by three.
But despite the finish, South head coach Brian Molina will take the team play and a solid tournament outing.
“The guys came out and fought and that’s all you can ask for,” Molina said. “We missed shots and I told the guys that the good thing about this game is that we had opportunities to win. We missed crucial free throws and shots down the stretch, but those are things that can be corrected. That’s why you play tournament games like this; I think we grew up as a team.”
In the second half, the Hawks missed 10 of their 20 free-throw attempts.
South nailed three shots from beyond the arc in the first, but hit just two more through the rest of regulation and overtime.
Harlingen did not take its first lead of the game until late in the third quarter when tournament MVP Jordan Wilson hit a floater in the lane to make it 43-41.
The Hawks took an eight-point lead earlier in the quarter, but a 12-2 Harlingen run closed the gap for good and no team led by more than four the rest of the way.
Wilson finished the night with 19 points.
For South, Luke Bradford had a tough night in the paint with Harlingen’s Cerrillo, but still led South with 17 points.
Teammate Dillon Hendrick finished with 13 and Gabe Britten recorded 11 points.
Keillor bracket
BOYS
Pool 1
Harlingen 51, Weslaco East 48
Brownsville St. Joseph 64, Brownsville Pace 45
Harlingen 61, Pace 51
Weslaco East 50, St. Joseph 37
Pool 2
Harlingen South 72, Santa Rosa 48
CC Miller 55, Edinburg Economedes 47
CC Miller 89, Santa Rosa 81
Harlingen South 68, Economedes 32
Saturday’s games
Pool 1
Harlingen def. St. Jospeh
Pace def. Weslaco East
Pool 2
Santa Rosa 67, Economedes 55
Harlingen South def. CC Miller
Seventh place
Pace vs. Economedes, NR
Fifth place
Santa Rosa 52, St. Joseph 48
Third place
CC Miller vs. Weslaco East, NR
Championship
Harlingen 66, Harlingen South, OT