With open shots a rarity Friday, it was the Tigers whose defense held up and who knocked down the shots as they took home a 40-34 victory over the Trojans.
The Tigers (19-3, 6-0) led by as many as 10 points in the second half, but went on a scoring drought in the fourth quarter that lasted more than four minutes during which the Trojans (18-6, 5-1) cut the lead down to just four.
That was when San Isidro’s Martin Tovar hit his second three-point shot of the quarter, taking the wind out of the Trojans sails for good.
Despite the short drought, the Tigers defense limited the San Perlita scoring inside and allowed them to make the most of open shots while on offense.
“It was all about the defense tonight. We helped inside a lot because their bigs are the ones who can hurt us and made them shoot from the outside,” San Isidro head coach Rolando Garza following the win.
“It’s a battle coming out here and we were in a defensive one tonight. We had very few shots with the man-to-man, but the ones we got we made because they were high-percentage shots.”
San Perlita head coach Rey Garza did limit the Tigers’ offense like he wanted to in the end, but the Trojans could not put the ball in the hole themselves.
In the end, miscues on offense never allowed the the Trojans to stay comfortable on offense consistently. And when they did get going late, San Isidro’s Tovar and his four three-point makes shut the door.
“Our goal was to hold (San Isidro) to 42 points, 12 per quarter. We got it, but we didn’t score enough to beat them. The player who hurt us was (Tovar), who made two or three shots that out did us,” Garza said. “We turned the ball over way too many times and it was careless. That’s what truly out did us in this game.
For much of the first half both teams exchanged scores as well as blocks in the paint.
There was seven lead changes in the first, with each team leading by five points at one point. Five was the margin in favor of the Tigers at the half.
In the third, the Tigers launched an 11-6 run and led 30-20 late in the third.
The Trojans turned on the defense in the fourth and kept the Tigers off the board for four minutes and cut the lead to 35-31 before Tovar’s shot with 2:47 left ended their own 11-5 run.
Tovar finished with 14 points to lead all scorers, while San Perlita’s Daniel Suarez recorded 11 points.
Teammate Michael Johnson had 10 for the Trojans.