McALLEN — The McAllen High Bulldogs fought off a fourth quarter rally by Los Fresnos to win the City of Palms Tournament championship 54-53 on Saturday at McAllen Rowe High School.
It’s the first time host team McHi has won the City of Palms tournament.
“We’re playing very good basketball right now,” McAllen High head coach Ryan Flores said. “We had a very tough non-district season. We had very tough tournaments before this one and I think the kids are growing up, they’re playing well together and building team chemistry where they’re trusting each other. Bottom line, we’re executing. They’re giving me all their energy, all the effort they can, and these are the results. We’re going to win some close ones, and we’re going to lose some close ones. I’m just glad we played good basketball to the end in this tournament and these were the results, winning a tournament championship we’ve never won.”
| McAllen High’s Christian Echazarreta (21) and Los Fresnos’ Tony Lerma (23) eye the rebound during the championship game in the City of Palms Tournament at Nikki Rowe High School on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022, in McAllen. (Joel Martinez | [email protected]) Joel Martinez |
The Bulldogs held an eight-point advantage entering the fourth quarter before Los Fresnos tied the game at 44 thanks to stiff defense and solid offensive play from Luis Ramirez and JJ Salazar.
A pair of missed free throws by Los Fresnos with 1.7 seconds left sealed the win for the Bulldogs, however.
Los Fresnos’ Salazar and Gio Galvan were named to the all-tournament team.
“The guys compete. They’ve competed all year,” Los Fresnos head coach Marco Hinojosa said. “They got a no-quit attitude, and they’re relentless. We had a chance to win the ball game. We go to the line with one second left, if we hit two free throws, I highly doubt they hit a shot from 94 feet because they had no timeouts. We missed 13 free throws and you can’t expect to win a basketball game missing 13 free throws, so it’s something we have to work on.”
McHi’s Erasmo Alvarado was named the City of Palms’ most valuable player, and teammates Jackson Ramirez and Mario Villegas were both all-tourney selections.
| McAllen High’s Erasmo Alvarado (11) drives to the basket against Los Fresnos during the championship game in the City of Palms Tournament at Nikki Rowe High School on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022, in McAllen. (Joel Martinez | [email protected]) Joel Martinez |
The Bulldogs earned their spot in the championship game by taking down Laredo LBJ 44-42 on Saturday. The Falcons punched their ticket to the final by avenging a buzzer-beating loss against Brownsville Pace suffered on Nov. 29 with a dominant 63-25 win against the Vikings in Saturday’s semifinal.
In the third-place game, the Brownsville Pace Vikings defeated Laredo LBJ 53-49 to earn bronze at this year’s City of Palms Basketball Tournament. Pace’s Tyler Rudder and Ricky Tijerina were both named to the all-tournament team.
| Brownsville Pace’s Tyler Rudder (11) drives to the basket against Laredo LBJ during the 3rd place game in the City of Palms Tournament at Nikki Rowe High School on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022, in McAllen. (Joel Martinez | [email protected]) Joel Martinez |