KEVIN NARRO | VALLEY MORNING STAR
HARLINGEN — After an 11-day break, Harlingen didn’t skip a beat against Donna North Wednesday afternoon.
The Cards used a strong first quarter from their offense to breeze past the Chiefs 74-14 in their final non-district game of the season.
Harlingen got some strong play from their big three; Jeremey Vasquez scored a game high 20 points, Michael Arellano dished out 18 while Mat-thew Sesler added 15.
Big Reds offense has scored 70 plus points in three straight games and on Wednesday their offense continued to roll. In the opening quarter, Harlingen outscored Donna North 24-4 with Arellano netting 14 first quarter points.
At the half it was all Cards who held a comfort-able 37-10 lead.
“We have been preparing to get back on the court every day in practice, so it feels like we haven’t missed a beat coming into today’s game,” Vasquez said. “Today our defense stepped up in the second half, we were able to keep the pressure up. Offensively we kept the ball moving, in our offense we play for each other and it all worked out for us.”
Harlingen finished the non-district portion of the season with an 18-5 record, and along the way picked up a tournament win at the C.E Vail and had a strong showing at the Tri-City Tournament earlier this month.
“It’s good to be back on the court and get our legs back under us,” said Harlingen coach Greg Yates. “We had a full practice this morning and got after it, we’re trying to get better each day and prepare for district.”
The Cards begin their district play with Weslaco Friday Dec 29 with the tip off set for 3:30 at Weslaco. Weslaco presents multiple challenges in rising star Safi Fino and arguably one of the top all around players in Braxton Bloomquist.
“It’s amazing we have played 23 games and we haven’t started district play yet,” Yates said. “It’s nice to have a good record but now this is the time to get after it. I have watched our district play and it’s going to be tough, they do a good job on getting after it and we need to get there too.”