By MARK MOLINA
Staff Writer
KINGSVILLE — The Santa Rosa Warriors put the senior-laden Goliad Tigers on the ropes after building a 13-point lead with less than five minutes to play.
After the Tigers made a run to cut the deficit to four, the young Warriors kept their cool and played veteran basketball down the stretch.
Santa Rosa’s defense kept Goliad off the board during the final 2:36 and sank 4 of 5 free throws down the stretch to hold off the late surge and pick up a 58-49 Class 3A regional quarterfinal victory Tuesday night on the campus of Texas A&M University Kingsville.
The win sends the Warriors to the Region IV-3A tournament for the fourth straight year. They will face San Antonio Cole next.
“(The team) is told that they are just as good as anybody else out there,” Santa Rosa coach Johnny Cipriano said. “I told them youth wasn’t going to be an excuse and that the expectations for the program were going to continue to be (high), to try and win it all. I know we’re young, and I knew we were going to make mistakes. So all I did was try to calm them down, give them some help with the clipboard and try to get them in a position to be successful.”
Freshman guard CJ Olivarez ended the night with 12 points, going 4 for 4 from the line during the final 1:27.
“We just had to keep our head in the game,” Olivarez said. “We kept getting down on ourselves and had a lot of turnovers, but coach just told us to keep attacking the hoop and they’ll foul us to win the game. Coach (Cipriano) has always told us that if you believe in yourself and believe in your teammates and don’t give up, you’ll win the game and nobody can stop you.”
Post David Bazaldua added 10 points for the Warriors and scored six straight points during the Warriors’ 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter, helping to push the lead to 53-40.
“I saw that I had the size advantage (in the post),” Bazaldua said. “I knew I could get to the basket and even if I missed, I could fight for the rebound anyway I could. It’s a big (confidence boost). We’re freshmen and people don’t expect us to be doing this. We just hope to keep it up in the next round.”
Though it got tight, the Warriors were in control almost throughout, getting out on an 8-0 run punctuated by a Carlo Ochoa trey and an Olivarez layup.
Goliad answered with an 11-0 run to take the lead on a Rocky Morris 3-pointer. That was the only time Santa Rosa trailed, but it was short-lived as Mike Bermea hit a trey of his own seconds later to put the Warriors back up 13-11.
Goliad trailed 18-11 after one quarter, but Morris — who led the Tigers with a game-high 26 points — led a push with eight second-quarter points and the Warriors took a 33-29 lead into the half.
While Goliad kept chasing the Warriors throughout the game, early runs to open the third and fourth quarters proved too much for the Tigers to deal with.
After the half, Santa Rosa opened with eight straight points and pushed the lead to 11 after a trio of free throws by Rolando Segundo made it 41-29.
Then Bazaldua led the 8-0 spurt in the fourth to give the Warriors their final cushion.
Both times, Goliad was held without points for more than three minutes to start those quarters.
“It’s always important to (have a hot start),” Cipriano said. “We want to get off to a hot start every quarter, to be honest. We just hung in there and did what we had to do. Fortunately for us, we made those big runs early and then late in the game.”