By ROY HESS | The Brownsville herald
PORT ISABEL — Port Isabel’s boys and girls swept a District 32-4A doubleheader against Raymondville Tuesday at the Tarpons’ gym.
In the nightcap, the Port Isabel boys won 66-57 in their 32-4A opener with the Bearkats.
Earlier, the Lady Tarpons led throughout the game to record a 58-40 triumph over the visiting Lady Bearkats.
When they were intentionally fouled late, the Port Isabel boys made seven of eight free throws during the final 45 seconds to seal the win.
“This is the type of game I expect (every time in 32-4A this season),” Tarpons coach Mike Hazelton said of the closely contested matchup. “They’re going to be wars, very tough games.
“We got down early, but our guys were resilient,” added Hazelton, whose team improved to 14-2 overall and 1-0 in district. “We had to change what we were going to do. We switched to a man-to-man defense to be a little more aggressive. That seemed to help out. Then we kind of held on and hit some big free throws down the stretch.”
The Tarpons trailed 15-9 by the end of the first quarter, but were ahead 30-29 at halftime by outscoring the Bearkats 21-14 during the second period. Port Isabel went into the final period up 52-39 after outpointing the visitors 22-10 during the third quarter.
The Bearkats pulled within two points, 59-57, when Raymondville’s Jacob Posas drove to the basket, scored and was fouled, and completed a three-point play with 1:49 remaining.
From there, Raymondville was forced to foul in the final minute. Tommy Zurita, Emilio Galvan and Dennis Lozano came through for the Tarpons by sinking seven of eight free throws to make it a nine-point margin of victory, 66-57.
Daniel Rinza led the Tarpons with 17 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Galvan, Zurita and Lozano added 15, 13 and 12 points, respectively, with Galvan hitting three 3-pointers, Zurita two and Lozano one.
Posas, Jayson Cantu and Aaron Castillo led Raymondville (0-1) with 15, 14 and 10 points, respectively. Castillo hit a pair of 3-pointers for the Bearkats.
Meanwhile, the Lady Tarpons, now 2-1 in district, led 32-21 at halftime and 42-30 after three periods en route to winning 58-40.
“We finally put together a game of pretty good defense,” Lady Tarpons coach Hannah Burleson said. “I liked our balanced scoring, too (with four players in double figures).”
Sabrina Gonzalez and Gabby Murchison led the Lady Tarpons with 14 points apiece. Gonzalez made three 3-pointers. Also for the Lady Tarpons, Sabrina Garcia had 12 points and Ryley Galvan 11.
Taylor Vento led the Lady Bearkats (0-3) with 17 points. Teammate Briana Soria added 10 points with one 3-pointer.