BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | STAFF WRITER
LA JOYA — With time ticking off the clock and Mission Veterans down three points, senior guard Noe Cantu had the ball in his hand.
He surveyed the floor as the clock ticked under five seconds.
“I was looking to move the ball,” Cantu said. “(Laredo Cigarroa) was playing a zone, and to beat the zone, you need good ball movement.”
But, the clock ticked down to four, then three seconds, and Cantu’s eyes shifted to the rim. Cantu rose up over two Toros defenders, and buried a clean 3-pointer in their faces as the buzzer echoed throughout the gym at La Joya Juarez-Lincoln High School.
What made the shot all the more impressive was the will it took from Cantu and the rest of the Patriots to get to that point. Few picked the Patriots to do much of anything when the tournament started. Two close losses to bigger 6A schools (La Joya High and Eagle Pass Winn) on the first day of the tournament bolstered that sentiment. However, once the Patriots got to the bracket play, they didn’t lose, gutting out close win after close win to arrive at the Silver Bracket Championship where Cantu’s three forced the Patriots into overtime for the second game of the tournament en route to a 49-48 win.
“We were all exhausted,” Cantu said. “Every game was close, meaning we had to use more energy every time.”
The Patriots kept their composure and kept it tied throughout the first three and a half minutes of overtime.
With less than 10 seconds left in the overtime period, Cantu tossed the ball to senior forward JT Lerma who rose up for a shot with 2.5 on the clock and was fouled.
Lerma’s weekend was as long as any of the Patriots’. He hit a floater at the buzzer to beat Corpus Christi King. The 5-foot-10 big man played a ton of minutes against a 6-foot-8 post player from King.
Maybe the exhaustion explains why he missed the first free throw in overtime against Cigarroa.
“I saw the looks on my teammates’ faces,” Lerma said. “I didn’t want to disappoint them. I knew I had to hit the second one to bring home the win for the team.”
He sunk it. Even after two timeouts, all Cigarroa could find against the Patriots’ defense was a half-court runner that was well short. Time expired and the Patriots won the Silver Bracket.
“This was the perfect team to play against, because they play a similar style to a lot of teams in our district,” Mission Veterans coach Jose Ramos said. “It was a big confidence booster for our guys. One thing that I told our AC was that we want to make sure we learn how to finish games. We definitely finished some close games today. So this is a big step forward for our team.”
The first La Joya Packs’ South Texas Shootout was filled with talent. Almost all of the Valley’s best teams were there, and dream matchups were abound. Edinburg Vela faced off with former coach Lalo Rios and Edcouch-Elsa in the platinum bracket, and then the SaberCats beat Edinburg High to claim the Platinum Bracket consolation championship.
Host La Joya High made it to the Platinum Bracket third-place game, which it dropped to Harlingen High. The Platinum Bracket Championship came down to two talent-laden out of Valley teams in San Antonio Cornerstone and Laredo Alexander, with Alexander taking the win.
Mission High topped McAllen Memorial for the Gold Bracket consolation championship, and Edinburg North beat Corpus Christi Moody for the Gold Bracket title.
For Mission Veterans the win shows not only where they are on the court, but where the team is off the court as well. Last season was filled with drama, turmoil and losses. Ramos came in focused on two things: team chemistry and defense.
Both of those traits showed in their performance in La Joya this weekend.
“The team bonding is there,” Lerma said. “Just a few weeks ago, we all got together for a bar-be-que. All the team chemistry is giving us a lot of confidence when we go into games. We trust each other more, and we really love our coach.”