WESLACO — Weslaco High and Weslaco East opened up Weslaco’s Mid Valley Classic basketball tournament at their respective gyms with wins Thursday.
Weslaco East defeated Mission High 44-33 and Weslaco High defeated Mercedes 55-28.
“It was an ugly win, but I will take it,” Weslaco High head coach Griselda Fino said.
The tournament features 16 teams from the Mid, Upper and Lower Valley, as well as Laredo and the Coastal Bend area.
“We have a lot of solid teams,” Weslaco High head coach Griselda Fino said. “A lot of teams that were in the playoffs last year. Coach Kromer, Weslaco East’s head coach, tried to space out a really solid team in each pool.”
Mission High, Sharyland High, Tuloso-Midway, Weslaco East is pool one. Brownsville Hanna, Edinburg High, Harlingen South and Laredo LBJ is pool two.
Brownsville Pace, Edinburg North, Mercedes and Weslaco make up pool three. Brownsville Veterans Memorial, Donna, McAllen Memorial and Mission Veterans is pool four.
Harlingen South defeated Brownsville Hanna 56-22. Edinburg North beat Brownsville Pace 61-15. Sharyland High defeated Tuloso-Midway 43-41 and Edinburg High took care of Laredo LBJ 69-42 in some of today’s games.
Teams have played non-district games already and will begin to journey throughout South Texas for tournaments.
“I graduated 12 seniors, so this is a whole new squad with a bunch of inexperienced kids,” Harlingen South head coach Rebecca Littleton said. “These types of games, these types of tournaments are to make us better and ready for district.”
First place will go to the platinum bracket, second place goes to the gold bracket, third heads to the silver bracket and fourth place goes to the bronze bracket.
Today’s games begin at both high school’s at 8:00 a.m. and last until 11 a.m., when the teams will have a break in pool play for a 3-point shootout. Pool play ends today with bracket play beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday. All bracket games will be at Weslaco East High School.
The platinum bracket championship will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Weslaco East’s main gym.