By MARK MOLINA | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
From the six-minute mark of the third to the early part of the fourth quarter, the Rivera Raiders erased a 10-point deficit to take a one-point lead and held the Edinburg Bobcats to no field goals.
But despite making it a tighter game down the stretch, it would be for naught as the Bobcats got buckets from Marc Figueroa and Damian Garcia in the final 43 seconds to escape with a 50-46 win over the Raiders Tuesday night at Rivera High School.
After taking its first lead since the early second quarter on a Rudy Guerrero bucket, Rivera’s offense couldn’t complement its defense’s effort, making just two shots from the field in final 7:48.
“We did a good job defensively and our press was really good, we just had a hard time hitting our 3s,” Raiders head coach Saul Villarreal said. “(Edinburg) had some guys who came in and hit those 3s and we just couldn’t hit when we needed them. We had some wide-open looks, but we just couldn’t hit our shots tonight.”
As Rivera (5-2) was having success with the press in the third quarter to climb back in the game, Edinburg (4-4) got ahead of it with big numbers in the fourth, which Bobcat head coach Zeke Cuellar said made all the difference.
“We did a good job at breaking their press and we got some easy baskets on the other end,” he said. “I thought we had more patience on offense and we didn’t rush our shots like we did in the third quarter where we got in a little rut there. We looked for each other there down the stretch and it made the game a lot easier. “
Rivera was led by Oscar Lozoya’s 15 points, while Edinburg’s Antoine Woodard led all scorers with 19.
The Raiders and Bobcats exchanged the lead five different times in the first and early second quarter.
Down 15-14 early in the second, Edinburg mounted a 13-3 run, led by 11 points from Figueroa, who knocked down three treys from the deep left corner.
Cuellar said going to a smaller lineup after center Jesus Cantu got into foul trouble helped open up those looks from beyond the arc.
“We look for our inside games when (Rivera) went small and our big had to defend a guard, but (Cantu) got into early foul trouble and we went small,” he said. “That was the better matchup against them.”
The Raiders would go into the half down just five after a pair of quick buckets.
Edinburg opened a 10-point lead — it’s largest of the game — after a three from Matthew Cruz, but that would be the team’s last field goal until the 3:44 mark of the fourth quarter.
Lozoya and the Raiders finished the third quarter on an 11-2 burst and took their first lead on Guerrero’s bucket to open the fourth.
The Bobcats would outscore the Raiders 15-10 from that point by crashing the boards, creating easy putbacks and trips to the free-throw line.
“(Edinburg) is a good ballclub and they just outrebounded us there towards the end,” Villarreal said. “We tried to rebound and we couldn’t. They just hit some shots when they needed to.”
Lozoya also was held in check late, scoring just two points in the fourth.