By JOSHUA McKINNEY, Staff Writer
When Los Fresnos let its lead slip away during the fourth quarter, it was time for the team’s star senior to take control.
Hugo De La Cruz scored 10 points during the fourth quarter and helped Los Fresnos Falcons fight off a second-half comeback from the Weslaco East Wildcats to win 60-52 in the Class 6A bi-district round Tuesday at Los Fresnos.
Having a player like De La Cruz take the game over during the fourth quarter makes coaching a little bit easier for Los Fresnos’ coach Marco Hinojosa.
“He’s an extension of me,” Hinojosa said. “I’ve coached him for three years. If I had coached him the fourth, he would have played for me for four years. He knows exactly what I want and how I expect things done, and how to do things at the right time. He’s Hugo, and he understands the game of basketball.”
The Falcons held a nine-point lead over Weslaco East heading into the third quarter, but it slipped away late in the frame and turned into a four-point difference between the two teams by the start of the fourth.
Jesus Ortiz and JJ Garza scored back-to-back in the early stages of the quarter to tie at 45, the game’s closest score since early in the first.
Weslaco East had the momentum, but a turnover opened a window for De La Cruz to take over, and he drove the lane for a layup and drew a foul for a free throw.
He drained the free throw to make it 48-45. This was the beginning of an 8-2 run, with the senior guard scoring all of the Falcons’ points and putting his team a safe distance from Weslaco East.
As for De La Cruz’s ability to dominate games at will, it’s just keeping his eyes on the prize.
“I just play hard and stay focused, that’s it,” De La Cruz said.
Tuesday’s game wasn’t the first time Los Fresnos had to pull away late, which gives Hinojosa faith in his team’s ability to put away games.
“It was little stressful, yes, but we’ve been here before,” Hinojosa said. “We’ve been in a lot of close games. We’ve been in double overtime games. I wasn’t worried. The kids have overcome a lot this year and they know how to finish ball games. It soon as it got tied, they stepped up notch and the lead grew again. I have confidence in these kids. They’re great kids, they’re hungry and they know what it takes to win a basketball game.”
De La Cruz led the Falcons with 24 points and added six assists and three steals. Albert Alarcon scored 12 points, and Jordan Urbina had nine points, seven assists and six steals.
Los Fresnos’ defense had 14 steals in the game, with seven coming in the first quarter.
“We’ve had as many as 20 steals in a game before,” Hinojosa said. “We have guys who can defend and are hungry for that basketball. We didn’t convert a lot of those on the other end. We were a little sloppy ourselves.”
“Our defense helps us all the time,” De La Cruz said. “We always tell ourselves that offense is going to come later but defense comes first.”
Ortiz scored a team-high 14 points for Weslaco East. Jonathan Munoz scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
Weslaco East’s slow start to the first half left them playing catch-up throughout the whole game and when they drew even, De La Cruz and the Falcons took over.
“I think we had a bad first half,” Martinez said. I think that we exerted too much unnecessary energy in the first half, which kind of cost us. In the second half, we were able to chip away and tie the game. We didn’t make good decisions when we needed to and it cost us the game.” “Let’s just give a lot of credit to Weslaco East. They came here well prepared. They had a good gameplan. They slowed us down. We’re an offensive team and they slowed us down. They played very hard and they wanted it. Credit it to them.
Los Fresnos plays Laredo Alexander in the Class 6A area round. The time, date and place were not available as of press time.
Joshua McKinney covers high school sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @joshuabvherald.