By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
McALLEN — Even as his team opened a double-digit lead by halftime, La Joya Palmview coach Andy Saenz wasn’t ready to concede a win.
In the previous three outings, the Lobos had failed to close out teams when they had an opportunity to secure a playoff berth. But in the regular-season finale on Tuesday, Palmview pounce on McAllen High, 50-26, to settle into the No. 3 seed in District 30-6A.
With that, the Lobos (18-16 overall, 6-6 in district) snapped a three-game skid while avoiding any type of logjam for the remaining playoff spots. Meanwhile, McHi (13-18, 4-8) dropped into a three-way tie for fourth place in district, along with La Joya High (16-16, 4-8) and La Joya Juarez-Lincoln (8-14, 4-8).
La Joya beat Juarez-Lincoln 41-34 on Tuesday.
“It’s a great feeling,” Saenz said. “I think we saw the preseason rankings, we were ranked second-to-last. You know, that’s on paper. That’s what I told the kids. ‘You’re in charge of your own destiny,’ and they worked their tails off in the offseason to get to this point.
“The fourth time making the playoffs in the five or six years that I’ve been here, it means a lot.”
Palmview did it with a relatively clean slate, after graduating its entire starting lineup. They plugged Jacob Salinas into the starting role, and he flourished as the team’s point guard. All year, he was among the Valley’s leading scorers. And on Tuesday, he poured in a game-high 17 points, including six during the second period as Palmview began to pull away.
The Lobos outscored the Bulldogs 12-3 during that stretch, as they took a 25-14 lead into halftime. They scored in double figures each frame, while McHi mustered three, six and six points, respectively, in the final three periods.
Salinas attributed the win to the team’s fundamentals on defense, such as boxing out. Saenz pointed to the team’s focus, saying the Lobos were sharp through four quarters as they had been in the previous five or six games.
With Tristan Myende contributing 10 points and Armando Alanis and Damian Quintanilla adding eight apiece, Palmview never let its foot off the pedal, outscoring McHi 25-12 in the second half.
The Bulldogs, for their part, were in a transition year. They returned only two players, one of which missed a large chunk of the season with a broken ankle, from a team that went to the regional tournament in 2015.
That inexperienced showed at times Tuesday, as Palmview crashed the boards and dictated the pace all night.
“I don’t think we played with the same energy and intensity as Palmview,” McHi coach Ryan Flores said. “We had a little bit of it in the first quarter, but seemed to get stagnant and plateaued.
“It has a lot to do with experience. When you’re in a win-or-go-home situation… sometimes the younger kids with less experience tend to shy away contact or get gun-shy, so to speak. But, I mean, you got to give it to Palmview. They were ready to go.”
The loss left McHi with a bit of uncertainty as it trudged back to the locker room. Had Juarez-Lincoln won, the Bulldogs would’ve been in a two-way tie for fourth place, thus setting up a play-in game for the final playoff berth.
Instead, the La Joya High win created a three-way battle, which will be settled in the form of a mini-tournament. The three coaches will convene later this morning to hash out the details, which would likely involve two games, likely Thursday and Saturday, to determine the fourth seed.
“It’s just a weird, uncomfortable feeling,” Flores said. “Like I was telling the seniors right now, ‘Well, guys, I’ll give you my speech that the season is over, but now we have to hope that La Joya won,’ and they did.
“You never want to put yourself in a position to where you depend on other teams to win for you. I’m just a little disappointed about our effort here, being at home, possibly our last game. It’s disappointing, but sometimes that’s how it goes.”