WESLACO — Harlingen South guard Steven Ortegon did damage from the perimeter and post Nick Garcia went to work in the paint to lead the Hawks past the Weslaco East Wildcats 51-40 on Friday at Weslaco East High School.
The Hawks improve to 7-0 in District 32-5A. The Wildcats drop to 5-2 in league play.
Ortegon scored a game-high 17 points, and Garcia had a breakout game with a 14-point double-double.
“Nick is a very coachable kid, and it was just a matter of time before he broke out of his shell,” Harlingen South head coach Brian Molina said. “We tried to put him in a successful spot and I’m proud of him. He executed, he used his teammates, his teammates got him involved. I think we also proved we’re not just a one-man team. We got several guys out there that can score, and it showed tonight.”
Garcia battled down low against East’s bigs and consistently came down with offensive rebounds and put them back up for buckets.
“It’s just the mentality knowing they have to worry about Steven on the outside so I can go do my thing on the inside. We just work on it in practice, and that was the key tonight,” Garcia said.
South held a four-point halftime lead before blowing the game open during the third quarter. Isaiah Cantu and Pablo Guevara both added nine points for the Hawks.
“We were just using our energy. Our energy increased and our game increased, and that’s what led us tonight,” Ortegon said.
Jediah Rivens led Weslaco East with 15 points. Zion Rodriguez and Carlos Roman both finished with seven points apiece for the Wildcats.
Weslaco East moves on to face Brownsville Porter at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Weslaco East High School. Harlingen South will look to remain perfect in district with a tough test against Brownsville Veterans at 6 p.m.
“We’re just going to take it one game at a time,” Molina said. “I knew it was going to be a gauntlet. I knew it was going to be a marathon coming into this really tough district dropping from 6A to 5A, so I just told them we can only control what we can control, and that’s controlling ourselves and trying to get wins one game at a time.”