MISSION — North Mission IDEA demolished Brownsville Riverview IDEA 94-12 in the Warriors’ first playoff appearance at the UIL level Thursday at North Mission IDEA.
The Warriors’ Class 3A bi-district victory improves the District 31-3A champions’ record to 22-3 this season. North Mission also extended its win streak to 20 games in a row.
“It feels great to win our first playoff game and to win it how we did. We did it as a team, so it feels good,” North Mission’s Raul Bejarano said.
Warriors head coach Isai Cabrera came into the game feeling a win was likely if his team simply executed. They did that and more to advance to the second round in North Mission’s first year competing in the UIL.
“We understood coming into this game that it was going to be very accessible to get the ‘W’ today. So we focused on more specific things during the game, so that was accomplished,” Cabrera said. “We’re moving on to the second round and now we’re looking forward to the next challenge.”
The Warriors jumped on the Rockets right out of the gate to take a commanding 27-2 lead after one quarter. North Mission’s half court pressure forced Brownsville Riverview to cough up the ball more than 20 times and the Warriors capitalized on the mistakes.
“We knew their style of play so we focused on getting steals and turning them into points. Every time we come on the court, we have to be focused, especially on defense so we can come up with the ‘W’,” North Mission forward Manuel Bejarano said.
Raul Bejarano finished with a game-high 30 points and three assists, while Manuel Bejarano added 20 points, six rebounds and five steals to lead North Mission.
Three more Warriors scored double-figures led by 13 from Michael Macias, 13 from Adrian Garcia and 10 from Andres Gonzalez to complete the blowout playoff win.
“People think IDEA teams aren’t good, but we’re making a statement here and putting IDEA on the map,” Raul Bejarano said.
North Mission moves on to the Class 3A area round where the Warriors will face the winner between Odem (11-8, 9-5) and San Diego (11-4, 5-1), who are tentatively scheduled to play at 3 p.m. Saturday in Alice.
“We need to show up tomorrow practice like we have a chip on our shoulder. Like we’re the underdog,” Cabrera said. “We need to continue working on refining our fundamentals — passing, rebounding, defense and communication.”