By MARK MOLINA | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
The Porter Cowboys looked gun shy early on against the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers, but when it mattered most, guard Andres Fragoso found the bottom of the net.
Down by two with 1:34 to play, Fragoso knocked in a go-ahead 3-pointer to put the Cowboys in front for good for a 60-58 District 32-5A victory Friday afternoon at Brownsville Veterans Memorial High School.
After struggling from the field, Fragoso said the biggest change late was simply effort.
“We played together as a team, played some smart ball by moving it around,” Fragoso said. “We got the shots off when we needed them. We just put extra effort, which is what we needed the whole time…looked good out there when we put that effort.”
The bucket was Fragoso’s second trey of the fourth quarter, where he put up eight of his game-high 19 points.
“It was probably his best performance of the season,” Porter head coach Luis Garza said. “I think I finally harped on him enough to say ‘I don’t care if you’re open, shoot it,’ and he finally believed in it— we got lucky today.”
After Steward Anabwani split free throws to put the Cowboys (7-13, 2-1 32-5A) up two, Chargers guard Matt Maddox went to the line with 4.1 seconds left, but missed both free throws to end the game.
It was a rough game for the Chargers (9-11, 1-2), who also struggled to gain a consistent rhythm despite getting 25 points from their bench.
Twice the reserves were able to put BVM ahead, but they could not keep the visitors at bay.
“My bench came in and played as a team and my starters played more as individuals,” Brownsville Veterans head coach Larry Gibson said. “When you become a starter, you earn the right to be a starter and when you do, you have to show people why. You can’t come out on the court and lay an egg. It’s not just on offense, I’m more disappointed in how my starters played on defense and I feel like that comes back to me.”
In a bit of self reflection, Gibson then added: “I think there needs to be some soul searching going on. Me, personally, I’m going to go home and do some soul searching — maybe it’s me. If I can’t get these kids fired up to play, maybe I’m doing something wrong.”
Porter fell behind 6-1 early and did not make a shot from the field until the 4:41 mark of the first on a Fragoso bucket, which sparked an 11-2 run.
Trailing 10-7 with under a minute to play in the first, the Chargers went to the bench and finished the quarter strong on a free throw and back-to-back buckets from Thomas Pena and Alex Villarreal.
That momentum would continue and turn into a 17-2 burst, led by nine points from Villarreal.
The Cowboys struggled to get on track as they were plagued by turnovers and the extra pass in the process.
“We can’t afford to pass up looks and when we do, that’s what put us in a bind,” Garza said. “I kept telling the team to shoot the ball because if we don’t shoot, we don’t score. We have a tendency to turn the ball over a lot and we didn’t get looks. At least if we shoot it we have a chance to get back on defense.
“I’m confident that when we shoot the ball when we have our looks, we should be able to compete against anybody. Today, that’s what happened.
Trailing 24-12, Porter began to let it fly as it ended the run with a Benjamin Eckersly layup down low and a triple from Christian Orozco to make it a seven-point game.
Orozco posted seven points in the quarter as the Cowboys went into the half down 32-30.
The Cowboys trailed by five early in the third before a pair of 3s from Fragoso and Orozco gave them the lead once again.
Brownsville Veterans went back to the bench trailing 44-39 and once again the reserves answered, this time with 9-0 run. Porter would weather the storm, however, and trailed by just one after three.
The Cowboys and Chargers exchanged the lead once midway through a close fourth quarter before Fragoso knocked down the late 3.
Porter’s Orozco finished with 13 points, while Damien Maldonado finished with 11 for the Chargers. Villarreal had 10 off the bench for Veterans.