By JOSEPH TELLO and FREDDY GONZALEZ | Staff Writers
LA FERIA — Six teams survived Day 1 of the C.E. Vail Classic boys basketball tournament on Thursday and all were eager to inch their way closer to the championship.
When the dust finally settled on Day 2 of the tourney on Friday, the two teams left standing were Los Fresnos and Edinburg Vela. The Falcons and SaberCats will now face off in the championship game today at 3:30 p.m. at La Feria High School.
The first match of the day began with Harlingen taking on Edinburg Vela for the chance to play Sharyland Pioneer in the semifinals. The SaberCats immediately showed their dominance by raining eight three-pointers in the first half to help establish a 42-12 lead.
The defending champs’ smothering defense didn’t allow the Cardinals to get into any type of rhythm throughout the game and the SaberCats went on to defeat the Cards 69-38 to advance.
Meanwhile, Corpus Christi Miller duked it out with Edinburg Economides in another match for a shot at Los Fresnos in the other semifinal.
Miller was in control the majority of the game until the lights went out – literally. Midway through the third quarter, the gymnasium lost power and the game was delayed until power returned five minutes later.
The Jaguars regrouped and were able to gain a 62-56 lead with 1:31 left in the fourth. Miller’s efforts of a comeback came up short and the Jags defeated the Bucs 64-58 to advance to the semis where they faced Los Fresnos on Friday night.
EDINBURG VELA 37, SHARYLAND PIONEER 35: Everything was on the line for the Diamondbacks as they looked to dethrone the defending champs and nothing could have been sweeter. And while Vela did indeed have their hands full with against Pioneer, they ultimately proved why they are the defending champs.
Pioneer held Vela scoreless in the third quarter to cut the Cats’ lead to 27-24. In a seesaw fourth quarter, emotions were running high and tempers were flaring.
A Pioneer technical foul allowed Vela to sink crucial free throws that helped the SaberCats take a 35-33 lead with 2:37 left in the fourth. Pioneer’s Andrew Ogletree drilled a bucket with 49 seconds left to tie the game at 35-35 and got the ball back for what would be the final possession.
Unfortunately, Pioneer’s Jordan Wilson was called for an offensive foul and Vela got the ball back for the last possession with four seconds left. At this point, Vela head coach Lalo Rios called a timeout to discuss the play he desired for his team to execute.
In the final seconds, Vela’s Alec De La Cruz was able to get a shot off and he nailed the buzzer-beater to send his team back to championship game of the tournament.
“Luckily my guy went in to double-team (Vela point guard Chris) Ochoa and I shot the ball with hopes it would go in.” De La Cruz said.
“It was designed for our point guard to bring the ball down and give it to Alec to take the shot,” Rios said. “We were very fortunate the shot went in and are able to return to the championship.”
LOS FRESNOS 57, EDINBURG ECONOMEDES 53: “D-up” echoed throughout the La Feria gymnasium Friday night as the contest between the Los Fresnos Falcons and Edinburg Economedes came down to the final minute.
Unfortunately for the Jaguars, late fourth-quarters mistakes proved costly as the Falcons held on for a 57-53 victory to solidify a spot in today’s C.E. Vail finals against Edinburg Vela at 3:30 p.m.
“Edinburg Economedes is a good team that’s well coach and they’re up and coming,” said Los Fresnos head coach Marco Hinojosa. “I know they struggled last year, but they are going to be a playoff team this year and you have to give them credit for defending us very well. They contested a lot of our shots and we missed a lot of easy shots, but you got to give credit to Economedes.”
Despite the narrow victory, Los Fresnos began the game on fire and quickly went ahead 12-2. However, just before halftime, Economedes erased the 10-point deficit as Angel Salinas hit his second of four three-point shots to pull Edinburg to within two points at the half. Salinas finished the game with 14 points, while teammates Johnathan Barrientos scored 13 and Joshua Sauceda added 12.
Los Fresnos’ two-point lead didn’t last long after the break. Down 28-26 Edinburg’s Miguel Gonzalez (10 points) quickly drove the ball down the court and tied the game at 28-28.
“At the break I told the coach to put some of the blame on me because I missed six layups and we should have been up 22 points,” said Los Fresnos’ Jordan Urbina.
Urbina didn’t wait long to repay his team as the junior quickly hit from beyond the arc to put the Falcons back up by three.
In the fourth period with the score tied at 38 a piece, points from the free throw line became a commodity and Los Fresnos’ Gabe Martinez came through big for the Falcons as the junior went 9 of 10 from the strip.
Teammates Albert Alarcon led the team with 20 points, Alex Garcia added 17, and Urbina contributed seven points.
The Falcons will play SaberCats today in a rematch of an earlier game between the two where Los Fresnos notched the win in overtime.
“I expect another great game. Hopefully it won’t be another overtime game this time,” said Hinojosa. “They’re well-coached and they’ve got probably the best player in the Valley in Ryan (Garza) and we have to find a way to contain them. We’re just going to show up and try to get better for district.”