By JOSHUA McKINNEY, Staff Writer
Los Fresnos clinched at least a piece of the District 32-6A title for the second consecutive season after Tuesday’s win over Hanna.
Now Los Fresnos can concentrate on finishing the season and getting ready for playoffs.
“The monkey’s off our back. That was our goal,” coach Marco Hinojosa said. “Hopefully we’ll win one or two more games to not share, because I know the kids didn’t like the feeling of sharing last year. They don’t want to share. They want to be greedy this year.
“If we do have to share, we don’t mind sharing but we just have to get better each day, get ready for the playoffs and just start preparing to get better these last two games to get ready for the first round.”
Lopez and San Benito are Los Fresnos’ final opponents of the district schedule, which gives the leaders a decent shot at winning the title. A win against Lopez on Friday makes the Falcons outright district champions.
Hinojosa won’t take his team’s final two games for granted.
“On paper we’re supposed to win, but Lopez gave us a great game here,” he said. “We only won by six. We were in a dogfight with San Benito. We were only up by eight with seven minutes to go in the game. They both got players who can go. We’re not taking them lightly. We’ve got to keep that drive and again, get ready for the playoffs.”
STILL IN THE MIX: After a lopsided loss to one of District 32-5A’s top dogs, Porter remains in the playoff chase.
Coach Luis Garza expects the 86-47 scoreline to refocus his team on continuing to fight for a postseason bid.
“That score gets them back,” Luis Garza said. “I’m a big believer in you need to get (a tail) whipping to refocus. That happened to us when we made that run a few years ago. We played bad two games before the end of the season and came back and reeled off five or six. It happened to us earlier in the year again, and we went on to win a bunch. I think it corrects itself by reminding them what happened but at the same time gets you back on level ground.
“We’re not as good as we think we are. Just because we won four or five doesn’t mean we’re the best team in the district,” Garza added. “It just means we’re working hard to get where we were, and we decided to take a day off and ran into a team like (Mercedes).”
The Cowboys are 6-6 and in the mix with Edcouch-Elsa, PSJA High and PSJA Southwest for one of 32-5A’s unclaimed playoff spots.
HANGING ON: Rivera’s 55-52 win over San Benito on Tuesday put the team even with Hanna in the District 32-6A standings.
Strong defense has allowed Rivera to earn back-to-back wins in district play.
“We are stopping penetration to the basket, and we take our chances on outside shots,” coach Saul Villarreal said. “We are also trapping more.”
The Raiders are 5-7, two games behind Harlingen High for the district’s fourth playoff spot. Rivera’s remaining opponents are Harlingen High and Brownsville Veterans Memorial, a team that sits second in 32-6A.
“We’re just taking it one game at a time,” Villarreal said. “We will see what happens at the end.”
Joshua McKinney covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @joshuabvherald.