It is expected that a team can drop off after graduating multiple seniors.
The Port Isabel Tarpons are one of the exceptions this year. A reason for that is the Smith brothers.
Jeffery Smith, a junior, and Christian Smith and Cleveland Smith, sophomores, have the team rolling after rejoining the team following the football season. The brothers helped lead the way in a 64-54 win over Brownsville Porter in the BISD tournament on Friday at Porter High School.
“We had that successful football run, and that has helped us,” Tarpons basketball coach Gilbert Rodriguez said. “Being in a competitive football district, winning district and going to area playoffs, we saw some elite teams. That has helped us transition to basketball, where we didn’t lose any steps. We hit the ground running.”
Christian Smith led the team in scoring against the Cowboys, finishing with 21 points. Cleveland Smith was not far behind with 17 points.
“It feels great that we could possibly be leaders of this team,” Christian Smith said. “I just want to continue the tradition of going deep in the playoffs.”
The Tarpons have won six straight games after the football players rejoined. Rudy Barrera, a quarterback for the Tarpons, scored 10 points and helped shift the ball around like he was running the Slot-T offense again.
Brownsville Porter at times pushed Port Isabel around. Senior post Erwin Sosa finished with 21 points and caused some troubles inside for the Tarpons.
The Tarpons opened up the game more and began hitting outside shots. That is something they want to do offensively, but they need to be better at grabbing defensive rebounds, Christian Smith said.
“They did a great job attacking us on their offensive sets,” Rodriguez said. “We need to tidy up our defense. We are trying different defenses that fit our personalities and our abilities. We just have to tighten it up and go from there.”
Port Isabel defeated Brownsville Rivera 55-54, Mission Veterans 67-46 and Brownsville Porter 64-54 in pool play.
The Tarpons continued the good form into the evening by defeating Brownsville Pace 56-47 and will have a shot at going to the BISD championship.
Port Isabel meets with Brownsville Lopez at 12:30 p.m. today at Hanna High School. The winner moves on to the championship game slated for 3:30 p.m., also at Hanna.