MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
LA FERIA — Sometimes a team can only do so much. And after their game on Saturday, the Weslaco Panthers can relate.
Despite a neck-and-neck game, the Weslaco Panthers’ defense could not slow down the Edinburg Vela SaberCats’ offense, whose clutch scoring lifted them to a 55-50 win in the 84th C.E. Vail championship game in La Feria.
Weslaco never trailed by more than eight points in the game and stayed within striking distance throughout the second half, but Vela’s Alec De La Cruz and Ryan Garza put in a combined 12 fourth-quarter points to help keep the Panthers at bay.
It was a tight one, but the SaberCats are not strangers to the situation.
“That’s how our games go,” De La Cruz said. “We are in a lot of close games in the first half, but we always find a way to extend the lead in the second half — we’re a second-half team.”
De La Cruz finished with 21 points, while Garza added 18.
After having a couple of runs in a back-and-forth first half, the Panthers couldn’t consistently knock down shots and sustain momentum.
Still, Weslaco head coach Gabe Valdez knew his team was simply outplayed in a matchup of Valley heavyweights.
“Vela is a good team and it’s not like we played a team who didn’t deserve it,” he said. “We missed some open shots that we could’ve capitalized on and we didn’t and Vela did. They also took advantage of some of our turnovers.
“It’s a good battle between No. 1 and 2 and it was a great game.”
For Weslaco, Justice Free led the way with 18 points, while Braxton Bloomquist finished with 17 points.
For Vela, Hector Ruiz also scored in double digits, posting 11 and was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
Weslaco started the game on a 7-2 spurt, before De La Cruz got going for Vela with nine first-quarter points, all coming on an 11-2 run to give his team an early 11-10 lead.
After another two lead changes, Vela went into the break up 27-24.
In the second half the SaberCats took advantage of their ability to get to the rim after a slow first half shooting from the perimeter. They made just one three-point shot on the day while the Panthers knocked down five.
“We’re a shooting team, but we struggled in the first quarter, so coach told us to start attacking,” De La Cruz said. “We believed in him and it ended up working for us.”
That led to 14 trips to the free-throw line for Vela, which only missed two in the second half.
As a team, the SaberCats went 19 of 23 from the charity stripe.