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The Santa Maria Cougars saw their season come to an end in a 66-45 loss against Thrall in the Region IV-2A final on Saturday at Buda Johnson High School in Buda.

Thrall stormed out of the gate with a 26-point first quarter to take a commanding 26-14 lead after one.

The Tigers took a 42-24 lead into the half, but Santa Maria put up a fight during the third and fourth quarters to keep the second half competitive.

The Cougars drew even with the Tigers after a 10-10 third quarter, but Santa Maria didn’t have enough firepower to complete the comeback attempt as Thrall punched its ticket to the UIL Class 2A State Tournament next week at the Alamodome.

District 32-2A champion Santa Maria finishes its season 20-13 overall and put together a 16-game winning streak after a 4-12 start to the year. The Cougars’ regional final round playoff appearance is the first in program history led by third-year head coach Johnny Cipriano.

Santa Maria made its way to the Region IV-2A final by picking up postseason wins over Three Rivers (64-54), Johnson City (57-47), San Antonio Lee Academy (54-47) and Sabine Pass (58-51).

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SAN ANTONIO — The No. 24-ranked Edinburg Vela SaberCats lost a state-ranked Region IV-5A final 66-53 against the No. 2 San Antonio Veterans Patriots on Saturday at Littleton Gym in San Antonio, bringing their season to an end.

Edinburg Vela finishes the 2023-24 campaign 36-6 overall. San Antonio Veterans (40-1) advances to the UIL Class 5A State Tournament next week in the Alamodome.

“It was a great game, great atmosphere and great environment,” Edinburg Vela head coach Lucio Rodriguez said. “I thought our guys played well. We had a slow second quarter that allowed them to extend that lead, but we never gave up. We kept fighting. We kept fighting until the end.”

Edinburg Vela jumped on top early as seniors EJ Avelar and Axel Garza scored all of the SaberCats’ first quarter points for an 11-8 lead after eight minutes.

The SaberCats would outscore the Patriots in three of the game’s four quarters, but a second-quarter scoring outburst from San Antonio Veterans put Edinburg Vela in a hole it couldn’t climb out of. The Patriots started the second with an 11-0 run and went on to win the quarter 27-6, sparked by 12 points from forward Jionte Jones. 

“I think they got a lot of transition points off our missed shots,” Rodriguez said about the second quarter. “We weren’t able to get back on defense, so they beat us down the court in transition.”

Edinburg Vela trailed 35-17 at the break, but there was no quit in the SaberCats.

They responded with an 8-0 run after the half to cut the lead to 35-25 with 4:22 remaining in the third quarter before San Antonio Veterans answered back. Garza scored 10 of his game-high 19 points during the third to help Vela close the gap entering the fourth.

“It doesn’t matter what the scoreboard says. We’re going to keep playing, continue to compete, continue to fight for each other because we consider ourselves family,” Garza said.

The SaberCats cut the lead to eight with 2:25 remaining in the fourth quarter after a trio of triples from junior point guard JP Olivarez, baskets inside from Avelar, free throw shooting from sophomore guard Jordan Bustamante and heads up play from senior guard Diego Salinas. Garza also added five points during the fourth. 56-48 is as close as the SaberCats would get, however. 

Avelar finished with 12 points, Olivarez had 11 with three made 3-pointers and Bustamante scored nine points off the Vela bench. Garza led the SaberCats with 19 points, six rebounds, three steals and two blocks.

The SaberCats’ seniors — Avelar, Garza, Aiden Lopez, Salinas and Sam Sepulveda — took the court together for the game’s final minute as the clock ticked away. They finished with three consecutive district championships and set a school record with 36 wins this season after leading Vela into the fifth round of the playoffs.

“It feels good that we made it this far. I hope we set the bar high for the Vela family and future Vela basketball teams,” Avelar said. “I hope they look up to us and I hope we were good role models to the juniors and sophomores we have on our team. We shouldn’t look at this as something that we did wrong, but something that we did right.”

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The Santa Maria Cougars took down the Sabine Pass Sharks 58-51 in their Region IV-2A semifinal playoff game Friday at Buda Johnson High School to earn their spot in the Elite 8.

Santa Maria (20-12) moves on to the Region IV-2A final to face Thrall (28-5) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Buda Johnson High School.

The Cougars and Sharks traded buckets during the first half with Santa Maria holding a 19-15 lead after one quarter. Sabine Pass responded with a big second quarter to enter the break with a 27-24 advantage.

Just like they did in their regional quarterfinal victory over San Antonio Lee Academy on Tuesday, the Cougars took over the third quarter to outscore the Sharks 15-9 during the third quarter to take a 39-36 lead into the fourth.

 

The Cougars kept the Sharks at arms distance with clutch free throw shooting down the stretch and a pair of big baskets from Aro Cantu to pull out the 58-51 regional semifinal victory.

Luis Otero had the hot hand early for Santa Maria to get the Cougars off to a good start.

The Cougars will battle Thrall at 1 p.m. Saturday in Buda with a spot in the final four on the line. Thrall defeated Kenedy 64-43 on Friday evening to set up the matchup against Santa Maria.

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SAN ANTONIO — Edinburg Vela trailed San Antonio Wagner by three points in the fourth quarter of their Region IV-5A semifinal and the SaberCats didn’t blink once.

Instead, the SaberCats outscored the Thunderbirds by 12 over the final eight minutes to pull off a 57-46 victory Friday at Littleton Gym in San Antonio to punch their ticket to the Elite 8.

Edinburg Vela (36-5) advances to the Region IV-5A final to face San Antonio Veterans (39-1) at 2 p.m. Saturday at Littleton Gym for a spot in the state tournament.

“The guys handled adversity well. We were leading the whole game and fell to a three-point deficit there in the fourth quarter and they responded like they have all season long — playing together, sharing the ball and playing defense,” Edinburg Vela head coach Lucio Rodriguez said.

Edinburg Vela senior forward Axel Garza scored 10 of his team-high 21 points during the fourth quarter to help lift the SaberCats to victory. He hit from long range, from the free throw line and converted a tough and-1 inside to come up big in the final quarter.

“We’re all we have. At the end of the day, it’s about those guys on the bench and we had to fight for each other and we weren’t going to give up,” Garza said. “I’m super proud of every single one of us. … They gave me the ball and even if I missed they told me, ‘next shot, next shot’ and I didn’t want to let them down. They kept giving me the ball, Coach kept calling my number and I had to come through for my guys. “

“That might seem surprising but that’s the Axel we’ve seen all year long. He takes over games, he’s a great player, a versatile player that can play inside and out,” Rodriguez said.

The SaberCats held a 27-23 lead at the break after a hot start from senior guard EJ Avelar got Vela going early. The SaberCats took advantage of openings in the Thunderbirds’ defense to create good looks around the rim. The trend continued throughout the second half and Wagner had no answer for Vela in the fourth quarter.

Avelar finished with 13 points, sophomore guard Jordan Bustamante made an impact off the bench with 12 points, and junior point guard JP Olivarez found his teammates around the rim to finish with seven points and five assists.

“This feels great. All the hard work we’ve put in is paying off. We beat a great team and showed what we can do against a great opponent up north,” Avelar said. 

Guard Marcus Johnson had the hot hand for the Thunderbirds with 12 points in the first half and another 10 during the second for a game-high 22. He was the only Wagner player to finish in double figures. 

Diego Salinas and Sam Sepulveda both chipped in with two points offensively for the SaberCats.

Edinburg Vela now shifts its focus to Saturday’s regional final against San Antonio Veterans (39-1). SA Veterans defeated Corpus Christi Veterans 60-49 on Friday at Littleton Gym to set up the matchup with the SaberCats.

“It’s another game and we got another game to prep for and that’s what we’re going to do tonight,” Rodriguez said.

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The Edinburg Vela SaberCats and Santa Maria Cougars are the Rio Grande Valley’s last two teams standing entering tonight’s regional semifinal round of the UIL playoffs.

The SaberCats and Cougars are tradition-rich programs that have experienced regular season and postseason success in recent years. Now, they’ll have another shot at playoff glory as Edinburg Vela and Santa Maria are one of 16 teams in their respective classes that remain in the state championship chase.

Here’s how the SaberCats and Cougars earned their way to the Sweet 16 and a look at tonight’s fourth-round playoff games.

EDINBURG VELA SABERCATS

Head Coach: Lucio Rodriguez

Roster: EJ Avelar, Jordan Bustamante, Jesus Contreras, Luis Cruz, Armando Garcia, Axel Garza, Aiden Lopez, Noah Lopez, Anthony Moreno, JP Olivarez, Tristan Riojas, Diego Salinas, Sam Sepulveda, Owen Serna, Derek Warkentine, Aden Ybarra.

The SaberCats (35-5) surge into the Region IV-5A tournament as winners of 21 straight games to take on the San Antonio Wagner Thunderbirds (24-11) at 5:30 tonight at Littleton Gym at Blossom Athletic Center in San Antonio.

Vela is on a run of five district championships in six seasons and is back in the regional tournament for the first time since 2018-19.

The SaberCats cruised past Harlingen South 69-24 in Round 1 and then held off Laredo Nixon 66-60 in Round 2. Vela followed it up by rolling against 31-5A rival Sharyland Pioneer 63-41 in Tuesday’s regional quarterfinal round to send Vela into tonight’s Sweet 16.

The SaberCats are scoring 67.9 points per game compared to 59.3 from the Thunderbirds.

San Antonio Wagner finished as the No. 3 seed from District 26-2A and made its way to the fourth round with playoff victories against Leander Glenn (54-47), San Antonio Southwest (52-46) and Boerne-Champion (52-49, OT).

The Edinburg Vela-San Antonio Wagner winner advances against the winner of Corpus Christi Veterans (27-8) and San Antonio Veterans (38-1) in the Region IV-5A final at 2 p.m. Saturday at Littleton Gym.

Corpus Christi Veterans and San Antonio Veterans play at 7:30 tonight at Littleton Gym following the conclusion of the SaberCats-Thunderbirds regional semifinal.

SANTA MARIA COUGARS

Head Coach: Johnny Cipriano

Roster: Miguel Alaniz, Jason Aleman, Aro Cantu, Esiah Gracia, Reynaldo Gutierrez, Juan Lopez, Mauricio Lugo, Luis Otero, Adam Saldivar, Immanuel Saldivar, Matias Saldivar, Dante Tamez.

The Cougars (19-12) make their return to the Region IV-2A tourney for the first time since the 2019-20 campaign and are set to face the Sabine Pass Sharks (21-10) at 6 tonight at Buda Johnson High School in Buda.

Santa Maria won its fourth straight district championship this season and enters Round 4 riding a 15-game winning streak.

For longtime head coach Cipriano, who is in his third year with the program, Santa Maria becomes the second program he’s helped lead to the regional tournament after the Cougars fell one round shy a season ago.

The Cougars come in scoring 57.4 points per game, three more than the Sharks’ 54.4.

Santa Maria opened the playoffs with a 64-54 win over Three Rivers before an area-round takedown of Johnson City, 57-47. In Tuesday’s regional quarterfinal, the Cougars used a boost from a 25-point third quarter to get past San Antonio Lee Academy 54-47 and earn their spot in tonight’s regional semi.

Sabine Pass finished as the No. 2 seed from District 25-2A and has picked up playoff wins over Normangee (65-48), Hearne (49-47) and Thorndale (44-39) to set up the regional semifinal matchup with Santa Maria.

The winner between Santa Maria and Sabine Pass will meet the winner of Kenedy (22-10) and Thrall (28-5) in the Region IV-2A final at 1 p.m. Saturday at Buda Johnson High School. Kenedy and Thrall face off at 8 tonight at Buda Johnson following the conclusion of the Cougars-Sharks regional semifinal.

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