MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
CORPUS CHRISTI — The Santa Rosa Warriors haven’t been taken to the limit in a game since before district play nearly two months ago.
In Friday’s Class 3A area-round matchup against the Odem Owls, that changed.
Despite watching a 15-point second-half lead get widdled down to three in the waning seconds, the Warriors bent but didn’t break as they held on for a 47-44 victory Friday night at Veterans Memorial High School in Corpus Christi.
The win sends the Warriors to the regional quarterfinals for the third-consecutive year, but after watching key players get into foul trouble and other miscues late, there won’t be any celebrating.
“Hopefully (this game) wakes (the team) up,” Santa Rosa head coach Johnny Cipriano said after the game. “We started off OK, but Matt (Garcia) is in foul trouble so I didn’t start him in the second half and Leo (Lara) getting in foul trouble hurts, too. We didn’t execute the way we should. Not finishing with the same people you started with changes the momentum of the game.
“We missed crucial free throws and layups that would’ve put the game away earlier, but Odem did a good job of adjusting to what we were doing.”
Santa Rosa’s Leo Lara sank his only bucket of the second half to put the Warriors up 47-42 with 35 seconds to play.
Odem’s freshman guard Andrew Amaro brought the lead down to three with a pair of free throws, but it wasn’t meant to be.
After Lara missed a free throw that would’ve made it a four-point game, Amarro missed a layup with 13 seconds left to play and a last-second heave from the right wing.
For Odem, it simply couldn’t make enough shots at the end or take advantage of the Santa Rosa’s miscues.
“We couldn’t convert or capitalize, but our kids fought hard,” said Odem head coach Tony Ramirez. “There are no moral victories. We would like to be where Santa Rosa is and consistently win games, and be on the brink of the regional tournament. We knew it would be a tough game coming in.”
Santa Rosa will now face Falfurrias in the regional quarterfinals next week.
Two teams were locked in a defensive battle early on, with Odem feeding center TJ Vela for a quick 5-3 lead, but two steals and six quick points by AB Losoya gave the Warriors the lead for good.
The Warriors finished the first quarter on a 15-4 run.
Lara’s best quarter of the night came in the second where his seven points helped the Warriors to a 13-point halftme lead.
He and Garcia sat for much of the second with foul trouble, however, and Odem went to work with a 10-4 run to start the second half.
Losoya stopped the bleeding with a three half way through the quarter.
Odem kept coming in the fourth as Amaro stole the ball away from Losoya and took it the other way for and easy layup with 2:04 to play, but would get no closer despite holding the Warriors to seven fourth-quarter points
Losoya led the Warriors with 15 points, while Lara chipped in 12.
For the Owls, Vela scored 15 and Amaro added 10.