TJ GARCIA | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
ALAMO — Jared Koenig led a balanced PSJA Memorial offense in the Wolverines’ 43-40 victory over visiting Edinburg Economedes on Tuesday night, possibly forcing the two teams to suit up again later this week for a playoffs play-in game.
PSJA Memorial’s District 31-6A victory lifted the team into a tie for fourth place with Edinburg Economedes. Both squads sport 7-7 league records. However, the two teams await the fate of preliminary district champ Edinburg Vela (14-0). The District 31-6A executive committee ruled Tuesday that Vela would have to forfeit 11 games in which it used an ineligible player — a decision Vela has appealed. Should the UIL deny the appeal, PSJA Memorial and Economedes would both qualify for the playoffs.
If the UIL accepts Vela’s appeal, then it’s almost certain PSJA Memorial and Edinburg Economedes would play again to see which team advances to the playoffs. Coaches said the game would likely take place Friday. The time and place of the game have not been decided.
That’s almost more drama that was in the real game. Even after the final buzzer sounded, parents and players from both teams milled around the Alamo gym for more than 20 minutes discussing the possible playoff scenarios.
The controversy shouldn’t have take away from the game, because both teams came to play in a contest that featured lots of solid defense and major hustle.
“Some of the games we didn’t really come out excited, ready to play, but tonight I think we did that,” Koenig said. “We just decided we needed to stop them. They do like to run, and they are a good shooting team. We tried to play them as well as we could.”
And their efforts worked. Economedes took a 21-16 lead into intermission, but managed just six points on one field goal in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Wolverines began to heat up, scoring 15 points, led by junior guards Adrian Rosales (10 points) and Koenig.
At the end of the third period, Memorial was up 31-27.
The fourth quarter was JD Chavez’s turn to shine. He hit a trey to put the Wolverines ahead 34-31 after the Jaguars had come back to knot the game at 31. Economedes answered behind the hot shooting of Angel Salinas (15 points), bringing the score to 39-37 with 29 seconds left.
Chavez scored on the next play with 17 seconds remaining to give the game its final score, and Salinas missed a potential game-tying 3 at the buzzer.
“We didn’t play our style. We like to run. PSJA Memorial likes to play a half-court offense, and they did a good job of getting us out of our rhythm,” Economedes coach Carlos Ramos said. “And normally, we hit some threes, but the ball just wasn’t going in tonight.”