Unfortunately, South fell victim to the Panthers’ crisp shooting and lost 57-45 at home on Tuesday.
“I knew coming into South, it was going to be tough for us and that we needed to be on top of our game,” said Weslaco head coach Gabriel Valdez “Coach Molina does a great job with his boys but luckily our guys responded well and we were able to get the win tonight.”
Weslaco’s Braxton Bloomquist led the Panthers in scoring with 20 points and right behind him was teammate Justice Free, who pitched in eight points while also snatching six rebounds.
“Braxton has done a great job for us all year long. He’s one of our captains and he’s a real student of the game,” said Valdez. “He played really well tonight and hopefully he can continue to play big for us.”
Bloomquist exploded onto the scene in the first quarter, scoring seven of his 20 points that helped the Panthers establish an 18-7 lead.
The Panthers continued to roll with their momentum throughout the game and were able to distance themselves from the Hawks with a 41-25 lead entering the fourth quarter.
Although the Panthers created a comfortable lead heading into the final period, the Hawks clawed their way back into the contest and cut the Weslaco lead to 39-49 in the final minutes.
The game came down to free throws where Weslaco converted 12 of 16 shots from the charity stripe compared to South’s 4 of 8.
Bloomquist was a perfect 6 of 6 on his free-throw shots that ultimately lead to the Panthers’ 12-point victory.
South will travel to Weslaco East on Friday where they will look to redeem themselves from their last matchup against the Wildcats.