By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The Rivera Raiders and Porter Cowboys opened the basketball season with a closely contested, down-to-the-wire thriller Tuesday at the Porter gym.
The Raiders did enough to pull out a 41-39 victory.
“First game for us, first game for them, and it was a good start,” Rivera coach Saul Villarreal said. “This is the way we wanted to start on a good note with a win. It was a very good game, very competitive. Coach (Luis) Garza has a good ballclub there at Porter, so beating them is a pretty good win for us.”
Garza said Rivera did more things right in the second half than Porter to earn the victory.
“I give my props to Rivera and Coach Villarreal,” Garza said. “I think they had a good scheme in the second half. They came out in a zone (defense) and caught us a little bit off-guard. We needed to have some people step up today and they didn’t.”
Rivera led 12-11 after one quarter before Porter rallied to go ahead 18-17 at intermission. The Raiders went into the final quarter with a 29-23 advantage, which was the largest lead for either team.
Oscar Lozoya and Martin Lopez each had 10 points to lead the Raiders. Teammate Nico Blanco added nine points.
Rey Martinez and Joel Gracia led Porter with eight points apiece. Luis Garza added seven.
A jump shot from the right side by Garza with barely a second left before intermission gave Porter only its second lead of the first half, 18-17.
Rivera took its biggest lead of six points twice during the third period. The first time came at 27-21 when Blanco sank a pair of free throws for the Raiders at the 1:40 mark of the quarter. The second time was a 29-23 advantage with four seconds to go in the third as Rivera’s Lozoya scored on a drive.
Porter battled back and led 33-32 on a three-point shot by Garza with 4:24 left to play. A pair of free throws by Gracia with 3:34 to go gave the Cowboys a one-point lead again at 35-34.
It was tied at 35 before Martin Lopez put Rivera up for good at 37-35 with 1:59 remaining by grabbing an offensive rebound and scoring from close range.
A 3-pointer by Porter’s Jerry Martinez with three seconds left pulled the Cowboys to within 40-39. Porter was forced to foul and Blanco made the first of two free throws for Rivera with just 1.1 seconds showing to account for the final score of 41-39.
The Cowboys and Raiders next play in the annual Brownsville ISD Tournament, which starts Thursday and runs through Saturday. Rivera is the host this year.
In the opening game of Tuesday’s doubleheader at Porter, the Mission High girls rallied to defeat the Cowgirls 34-28 in another season opener.