By MARK MOLINA | STAFF WRITER
LOS FRESNOS — Minutes before tipping off against the Weslaco High Panthers, Los Fresnos head coach Marco Hinojosa said this was his team’s first tough test of the young season.
It would end up being a test the hosting Falcons would ace.
Guard Gerry Martinez scored a team-high 22 points, Ricky Altamirano followed with 18 and the Falcons cruised to a 62-42 win over the Panthers Friday afternoon at Los Fresnos High School.
Los Fresnos led by just two after the first quarter, but its offense heated up and outscored Weslaco High 37-21 over the next 16 minutes, led by 10 points from Martinez in the second quarter and 12 from Altamirano in the third.
“ It was two good teams going at it,” Hinojosa said. “Every time Weslaco and us play, it’s a classic. We weren’t able to pull away until the third quarter, where we hit some shot that we weren’t hitting. I want to say that our fast tempo got them a little tired, especially their bigs and we capitalized by that.”
Weslaco High coach Gabriel Valdez said his younger team was simply rattled in the second and third quarters, causing them to be overwhelmed by the Falcons’ speed and defensive pressure.
“ Los Fresnos has a really good senior ballclub,” he said. “We knew coming into this game that it would be a test for us with the lack of varsity experience in our guys. It hurt us a little bit, but we’ll bounce back and keep working and grinding on things.”
Weslaco High hung around early by feeding the ball to center Juan Balderas, who scored eight of Weslaco’s 10 first-quarter points.
“ (Balderas) is a solid ballplayer and we tried to stop him and we still couldn’t find a way to stop him,” Hinojosa said. “Credit (Weslaco) for that.”
While Balderas would tack on 15 more points the rest of the way and finish with a game-high 23 points, the Los Fresnos defense made life difficult for Weslaco High throughout and didn’t allow any other double-digit scorers.
“ I don’t think our bigs get enough credit on the block,” Valdez said. “Los Fresnos did a great job of trying to make them work. We tried to get (the ball) in early and establish that, but it faded away a little bit.”
Leading by three in the early second quarter, Martinez sank a deep straightaway three-pointer to spark a 14-3 run during which he would sink two triples and complete a three-point play on a drive to the basket to make it 30-16 with 2:40 to play in the first half.
After heading into the break up 31-18, Altamirano took over to start the third period, scoring the Falcons’ first nine points of the quarter and pushing the lead to 40-22.
The Falcons sank 10 treys on the day would lead by as many as 22 points on two different occasions in the second half.
“ We’re excited with what we’re seeing,” Hinojosa said. “I think the future is bright with us, we just have to continue following game plan like we did today. We have a lot of good kids that are team-oriented and understand what we want to do and they get it done on the floor. So credit to my kids, they follow a game plan and they’re just fun to be around.”