By MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
The Porter Cowboys hung around as best they could as they trailed the Mercedes Tigers by just 10 points at the break, but things eventually bottomed out.
The Tigers heated up from the floor and held the Cowboys to just one field goal during the third quarter as they rolled to a convincing 66-34 District 32-5A victory Friday night at Porter.
Also Friday, the Mercedes Lady Tigers rallied back from a double-digit deficit during the third quarter and upended the Porter Cowgirls 42-33.
In the boys game, Mercedes’ Brandon Lozoya scored a game-high 23 points and Jordan Ovalle followed with 22. The duo combined for 15 points during a third quarter in which Mercedes outscored Porter 20-2 to blow the game wide open.
Tigers coach Rick Trevino said it all started with deflections and transition buckets.
“ We got a lot of deflections, we were around the ball a lot and we got into passing lanes,” he said. “Every time we got deflections, steals or quick rebounds, it led to our offense. That stand on defense is what really stood out to me.”
Mercedes improved to 4-3 in district play, and Porter fell to 1-6.
Porter’s lone make from the field was on a Yahir Torres bucket at the 2:52 mark of the third to make it 43-23. The Cowboys didn’t hit another until the 3:54 mark of the fourth.
Porter coach Luis Garza said the scoring drought was an all-too-familiar feeling.
“ We’ve been struggling all year with (scoring),” he said. “We’re averaging 32.6 points per game. We just always have a quarter where we don’t come out inspired. I think the bottom line is that we have to play inspired basketball. I don’t think that’s happening. We make bad decisions, and we can’t put the ball in the basket.”
Torres led the way for Porter with seven points, and Brandon Reta, Kevin Garcia, and Rocco Almazon added six apiece.
Mercedes’ Justin Closner opened the third with a 3-pointer, and Ovalle followed by scoring the next six points, getting to the rack at ease.
Finally, Lozoya hit a triple of his own to cap a 12-0 run to open the quarter and push the lead to 43-21 with 2:52 left in the third.
Torres ended the run with a layup to make it 43-23, but an Ovalle trey on the other end led to a 15-0 run, which was spearheaded by 10 Lozoya points to push the lead to 58-23 by the 5:51 mark of the fourth.
“ We have decent scorers when we’re playing together and moving the ball,” Trevino said. “When we start playing selfish, that’s when we’re not shooting so well. So they did a better job today at moving the ball around.”
In the girls game, Porter’s Desiree Trevino scored 17 points to help her team build a 22-11 lead by the 6:46 mark of the third quarter. But as the boys did in the later game, the Cowgirls went cold from the field and were held without a field goal for more than 12 minutes.
That’s when Mercedes (4-5) woke up and outscored Porter (3-6) 31-11 the rest of the way, led by guard Sellie Gonzales, who scored 10 of her 12 points during the second half. Mercedes’ Mika Vento also scored 12 points, and Karissa Moya added nine.
“ We started attacking the basket, getting the rebounds on those 50-50 balls,” Mercedes girls coach Santiago Rivas said. “We locked up (Porter) in the second half and did a better job of finding the open girl. Porter is a tough team, and they were on a streak. We had lost two and they won two, so this is a big win for us.”
Desiree Trevino scored just one more point for Porter — on a free throw midway through the third quarter — to finish with 18 before fouling out later in the fourth quarter. Teammate Ashley Pena scored five points.
The Cowgirls recorded just three field goals during the final 13 minutes of the game.
“ We just weren’t communicating that well on defense (in the second half),” Desiree Trevino said. “We also moved the ball better in the first half, but in the second we started getting a little flustered. We just wanted to shoot the ball, when we were passing it and getting wide-open shots in the first half.”