BROWNSVILLE — Five players from Brownsville Hanna scored in double digits Tuesday to lead the Eagles to a 74-58 non-district win over San Perlita at Hanna High School.
The Eagles compete in Class 6A, while the Trojans are in Class 1A.
“I think we started off strong,” Brownsville Hanna head coach Fermin Lucio said. “I think there are some things in the second half that we need to clean up. Defensively, we were out of position a little bit. Overall, after a long weekend at the La Joya tournament, I feel we came out and took care of business on our home court.”
Kevin Flores, Ricardo Roman, Jared Zarate, Beto Galarza and Manrique Cantu scored 10 points or more against the Trojans and combined for 37 of Brownsville Hanna’s 48 first-half points.
“I think we came out flat in the first half,” San Perlita head coach Nataniel Garza said. “We were down 27 in the first half and that is just a big hole to try and fight back from.”
The Trojans shrunk the Eagles’ lead to 56-46 late in the third quarter after a basket from Nathan Chavez. The guard finished with 18 points and was aided by Julian Johnson’s 14 points.
San Perlita did not get within striking range as the Eagles kept them at an arm’s length in the fourth quarter.
“If we hit some shots during that stretch, it is a different ball game,” Garza said. “I think it is a great lesson for our team. If you are going to play a tough team like Hanna, we have to play all 32 minutes.”
The Eagles used a 19-6 run to close out the first half getting eight points from Cantu and a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Galarza. The run put Brownsville Hanna up 48-21.
San Perlita showed fight in the second quarter after going down 27-8. The Trojans cut the lead to 29-15 thanks to hustle plays and picking up fouls on the aggressive Eagles, who were looking for steals to start fast breaks.
Brownsville Hanna started the game strong by forcing turnovers and finding lanes to drive through the Trojans defense. Flores finished with eight of his 14 points in the first quarter.
The Trojans will be in action again at 3 p.m. Saturday against Roma at Roma High School. The Eagles take on McAllen Memorial at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at McAllen Memorial High School.