MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — Much like Harlingen and Harlingen South’s first encounter in November’s non-district play, their latest game had some momentum shifts.
Unlike last time, however, Harlingen could not get over the hump as Harlingen South used solid play underneath the basket and timely shooting to stay ahead and walk out with a 61-57 win Friday night at Harlingen High School.
The Cardinals (2-3 in District 32-6A) trailed almost the last three quarters, but constantly chipped away at a couple of sizeable Hawk leads throughout the game, including a 10-point lead midway through the second quarter.
However, the Hawks (4-1 in District 32-6A) consistently had an advantage in the paint over the speedy Cardinals, opening up good opportunities for shots beyond the arc, which killed Harlingen runs.
Play by South’s bigs Luke Bradford and Jimmy Morton helped combat the aggressive Harlingen attacks to the basket early on and set the tone for the rest of the night.
“I was proud of the effort and any time you play Harlingen High, it brings out the effort in both teams; they always do a good job,” South coach Brian Molina said.
“Harlingen does a good job of attacking the basket and we tried to do things to negate that. We couldn’t match Harlingen’s speed and our bigs played big for us tonight and our leadership from the guys who have been here carried us over the top.”
Bradford and Morton’s aggressive play underneath gave South second shots on possessions and disrupted the flow of Harlingen’s offense, while on defense forcing turnovers and blocking shots.
Still, Harlingen had its chances but could not capitalize from the charity stripe, going 12 of 26 from the line.
“Their height comes into play, but we also missed some free throws down the stretch and that was the difference in the game,” Harlingen coach Greg Yates said.
“South has good rim protectors, but we showed heart. We made a great run at the end but we also gave open threes throughout and missing our free throws was the bottom line difference in the end.”
Early in the first, South jumped out to a 10-3 lead but tied the game at 18 heading to the second, but a Bradford three to begin the period put South ahead for good.
South started the second quarter on a 13-3 run only to see Harlingen get it down to four at the break.
Back-to-back threes from South’s Christian Pena and Gabe Britten quickly put South back up eight early in the third, leading to a couple of early timeouts from Yates.
Harlingen got the score down to two early in the fourth but got no closer, missing eight free throws in the fourth quarter alone.
Morton scored eight points on the night and Bradford’s 19 points came off his ability to drive and shoot from the outside.
Bradford ended the night with three of his team’s seven triples.
South’s Britten followed Bradford’s 19 with 13 of his own, while Harlingen’s Ernie Ramirez led all scores with 24. Teammate Jordan Wilson had 15.