By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
ROMA — More than ever, the No. 22 state-ranked Laredo United Longhorns are determined to return to the Class 6A regional basketball tournament for the second straight year.
“We have a lot of confidence on our side,” said Marlon Williams, a 6-foot-1 senior wing for the Longhorns. “Our motivation is to get back to regionals and try to go even farther.”
United’s high aspirations for the postseason turned out to be bad news for the Los Fresnos Falcons in their area-round playoff game against the Longhorns Friday night in Roma.
District 32-6A co-champion Los Fresnos (26-7) led early by as many as 11 points, 13-2, but the Falcons couldn’t sustain their solid play of the opening quarter and wound up losing 69-54 to the District 29-6A runner-up Longhorns (25-9).
United, ranked No. 22 among 6A teams in the state by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, now advances to next week’s 6A regional quarterfinals to face McAllen High, a 70-43 winner against Harlingen South, also on Friday.
A victory over the Bulldogs would send the Longhorns to the regional tournament for the second straight year.
Los Fresnos led 23-18 after one quarter, but trailed 37-31 at intermission and 46-41 entering the final period. The Falcons were forced to foul late in the fourth quarter and United made its free throws (12 of 14) over the final 3:24 to win by double digits and end Los Fresnos’ postseason in the second round for the third consecutive season.
“I thought it was two good teams going at it,” Los Fresnos coach Marco Hinojosa said. “United made the fewest mistakes and that’s what hurt us tonight. We had some turnovers, several missed layups and several missed free throws. If we could have just made our free throws and layups, we would have been fine and the game could have gone the other way.
“United is a (past) regional team for a reason,” Hinojosa added. “We’re trying to figure out how to get there (too). We just have to do a few little things better. We will and we’ll be back again. Next time, we don’t want to stop in the second round (like this).”
The Falcons ran into a team that was somewhat a mirror image of the way they prefer to play — hustle on the defensive end to create turnovers to go with an uptempo offense that isn’t shy about putting up 3-pointers. United just did a better job than the Falcons of playing that way Friday in Roma.
David Sanchez led United with 17 points, including five 3-pointers. Teammates Juan Chapa, Andrey Pompa and Williams added 15, 12 and 12 points, respectively, with Chapa and Pompa each netting a 3-pointer.
For Los Fresnos, Andrew Carrizales led the way with 18 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Also for the Falcons, Gabe Martinez and Alex Garcia contributed 11 and nine points, respectively, each with a 3-pointer.