WESLACO — On Tuesday, the Weslaco Panthers cut to the basket, penetrated the paint at will and sank the outside shots.
And when they weren’t doing that, they were feeding the ball down low to center Justice Free.
In the end, it became too much for the Harlingen Cardinals as the Panthers rolled to an 81-64 Class 6A bi-district win at Weslaco High School.
Free led the Panthers with 22 points and had his way against the Harlingen bigs underneath the basket, opening up the floor and giving their guards open shots and easy cutting lanes to the basket.
“We played a good game and I have a good squad. They keep getting better everyday and they do the little things; today was a good day for them,” said Weslaco head coach Gabe Valdez. “Justice is a big part of our structure, but we have good guards that can hit the shot if they collapse on Justice. They’ve all done a great job and I hope we can go forward from here.”
Harlingen kept on Weslaco’s heels throughout and got as close as seven points in the fourth quarter. But the aggressive Panthers attack yielded easy shots and trips to the free-throw line.
“Weslaco got in some nice lobs and (Free) got some easy ones on us, but they’re a good team; it’s why they won the district,” said Harlingen head coach Greg Yates. “We had our opportunities in the game. We were down six at half and made a good run to make it competitive. Despite the score, those who were here know it was a lot closer game than that. I’m real proud of our kids.”
With the win, the Panthers move on to face McAllen Rowe this Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the area round.
The Red Birds led by three early in the second thanks to back-to-back buckets by sophomore center Matt Sesler underneath. But a three-point play by Free on the other side sparked a 10-0 run by the Panthers.
The Panthers led by as many as nine in the first half and went into the break up 39-33.
Harlingen guard Ernie Ramirez put in five fast points to give the Cards some life coming out of the break, and senior power forward Juan Cerrillo added a three-point play to cap off an 8-3 run and cut the Weslaco lead to 42-41.
Cerrillo sank a pair to knot the game at 43 moments later, but Free put in another easy bucket for Weslaco and teammate Braxton Bloomquist sank a three to take the wind out of Harlingen’s sails.
Trailing 70-55 in the fourth, Harlingen had one more run but watched as the Panthers reeled off 10 straight points to push the lead back to 18.
Harlingen’s Ramirez led the Cards with 22 points on the night, while Weslaco’s Jordan Young added 18.
Bloomquist, meanwhile, pitched in 14.