By EDWARD SEVERN, Special to RGVSports.com
LA FERIA — Four East Valley teams were in action early Friday, participating in the C.E. Vail tournament hosted by La Feria.
The La Feria Lions took on Brownsville IDEA Frontier and easily dispatched the Chargers 75-29 in a consolation bracket matchup.
The Lions jumped on IDEA Frontier quick, opening a 16-0 lead to start the game. A pair of free throws by Alejandro Maldonado broke the run, but the damage was already done.
Everyone on La Feria got some action against the Chargers. IDEA Frontier was extremely undersized and did not have an upperclassman on the court.
The starting five of Gavin Vento, Julian Torres, Cameron Wood, Carlos Gonzalez and Brandon Villanueva ran the floor early, hitting easy buckets and getting plenty of steals as they took a 40-10 halftime lead.
To be fair, IDEA Frontier had most of its key players out because of testing. La Feria took advantage.
“IDEA was not able to bring their full team, so I know that affected them,” Lions coach Dario Sanchez said. “We got to work everyone in. I thought that was very good. We have five freshman, we got to get them ready for district.
“These kids are coming off a COVID year, we have kids coming from football, some kids have not played in two years. So to get these kids game time in whatever bracket is huge for us with district coming up.”
Also Friday, Port Isabel took on Harlingen South in a winner’s bracket quarterfinal at the same time.
It was a close game for the majority of the affair, but the Hawks hit some big 3s down the stretch to pull away from the Tarpons 66-51 and advance to the semifinal round.
“Every game, we are just trying to get better,” South coach Brian Molina said. “We went up against a tough Port Isabel team. I like the way my guys finished at the end.
“Plenty of tough competition, and we need a lot of game situations. Playing these tough teams will get us ready for district,” he added.