SANTA ROSA — The Progreso Red Ants can sting, but that venom was not strong enough against the Santa Rosa Warriors.
The Warriors (19-7, 12-0) held off the feisty Red Ants (23-9, 10-3) 66-56 in a District 32-3A contest Friday night at Santa Rosa High School.
The game was played at a frantic pace, every basket was cheered, every call by the refs was jeered by one side of the gym, and the non-calls. The players played hard on the court, and the fans went just as hard in the stands.
As the game entered the fourth quarter, the Warriors had the extra gear.
“We push them a lot,” Warriors head coach Rene Duque said. “Our practice is more of a ‘dog mentality’, it comes back to football with the ‘war mentality’, we just tweaked it a little to the ‘dog mentality’, and we are just going after it.”
The Warriors entered the fourth quarter up only two points, 48-46.
Junior Bryan Rojas scored seven of his team-high 18 points in the fourth, including a nice left-handed layup where he used his body to shield off the oncoming defender, putting the Warriors up eight and giving them enough cushion to hold off the Red Ants.
“We all pulled though in the end,” Rojas said. “We all worked together, we all got us this win, it was not just one thing. We all came together for the win.”
Santa Rosa’s Sergio Mendoza put up 15 points, Nathan Garza had 11, Felipe Alaniz finished with nine and Adrian Zamora had multiple blocks to go with eight points in the paint.
Progreso’s Vlady Rivera had a game-high 20 points, Sergio Moreno finished with 16 and Isaih Aleman put up 14.
“Progreso is a very well-coached team,” Duque said. “They will be good for the next few years.”
Progreso and Santa Rosa traded buckets for much of the first half. The Warriors ended the first quarter up 17-13, but it was the Red Ants who went into the locker room up 33-32.
The Red Ants are slated to be at home against Weslaco IDEA Pike at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The Warriors will look to stay undefeated in district against Brownsville IDEA Sports Park at 7 p.m. in Brownsville.