BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | THE MONITOR
Edinburg High got off to the perfect start this year. The Bobcats won two tournaments and then opened the District 31-6A season 6-0, looking like the favorites to win the district title.
Then, on Jan. 19, they suffered a close loss to rival Edinburg Vela. Suddenly, the invincible Bobcats looked human.
Edinburg got back on track with a big win over PSJA Memorial, but the last two games have been hard on the Bobcats.
“I think those two tough loses have kind of humbled us a little,” Edinburg coach Esequiel Cuellar said. “We reviewed them with our kids and watched film to talk to them about what we need to get better at. I think when you win so many consecutive games and then you get a loss here or there, sometimes those kids, of course, are going to feel those losses, but we will try to bounce back tomorrow and get back on the winning track.”
Edinburg High hosts PSJA North at 7:30 tonight. EHS finishes the season with games against Edinburg Economedes and Edinburg Vela.
The first of the two most recent losses for Edinburg High was to PSJA High on Jan. 26. The Bears used a smothering 2-3 zone to slow the Bobcats. But the Bobcats were also playing short-handed because junior forward Antoine Woodard was unavailable.
“We made some changes, and we usually don’t do that,” Cuellar said. “We had to move our point guard to the four, and we hadn’t done that too many times. That was kind of new, and then we worked on it afterward, but that kind of put a little damper on us. That was part of that loss.”
On Tuesday, Edinburg High played Edinburg North, and the Cougars came out on top 53-52. The Bobcats had a shot at the winning basket at the end of the game, but Cuellar said that miss wasn’t the reason they lost.
“We had 13 missed free throws in that game, and that was the main factor,” Cuellar said. “I know we had an open look at the end, but I don’t think that was the difference-maker. The difference-maker was we missed so many free throws. That put us in the bind of a close ball game, to the point where we had to settle for a shot at the last second. We make our free throws, it doesn’t get to that.”
Still, the Bobcats are 23-9 overall and 7-3 in district. They have slipped to second place, but they will still face the first-place SaberCats before the end of the season.
“We have been in this position before,” Cuellar said. “In the last two years, we have finished with the tougher opponents down the stretch. The last three games have been the tougher opponents, and we have been in this situation before. We are just trying to overcome that. I think last year, we lost the last two before we played our playoff game. We don’t want to be in that position again. We are trying to make them realize that you have to finish strong, so that if you get in the playoffs, you are on the right track. You have the right mentality of winning the games that you need to win.”