By STEFAN MODRICH, Staff Writer
CORPUS CHRISTI — Santa Rosa had a significant matchup advantage against Mathis, and Warriors coach Johnny Cipriano exploited the height disparity his skilled big men possessed in an 87-67 win in their area-round game Friday at Corpus Christi Ray.
Santa Rosa’s leading scorers were Adam Cavazos (22 points) and David Bazaldua (21 points).
“We don’t have a height advantage against a lot of teams,” Bazaldua said. “But we can shoot and we’re athletic.”
The Warriors led 21-16 at the end of the first quarter but went on to outscore the Pirates 41-25 during the second and third quarters.
The first of a series of decisive Santa Rosa runs was capped by a fastbreak layup from CJ Olivarez (10 points) that gave the Warriors a 27-18 lead at the 5:55 mark of the second quarter.
Even when Santa Rosa couldn’t find the net from deep, they cleaned up by dominating the glass on both ends.
“We just play our style,” Cipriano said. “We kind of knew just by looking at what was out there that we would have a size advantage. We were going to shoot when we were open, and if not we thought we could get an offensive board.”
Jarren Jimenez air-balled a 3-pointer in the right corner that went straight into the hands of Cavazos under the basket, and he banked in a putback and drew contact, making the ensuing free throw to convert the old-fashioned 3-point play to make it 32-23 with 3:30 to play in the second period.
Cavazos hit a 3 as the buzzer sounded to increase Santa Rosa’s lead to 41-29 at the half.
Bazaldua led the Warriors with 12-first half points. Christian Vela (17 points) added nine of his 11 first-half points in the first quarter, and Jimenez had six in the second quarter.
The Warriors opened the third quarter on a 9-2 run, pulling away with a 50-31 lead with 4:55 remaining in the third.
Santa Rosa led 62-41 at the end of the third quarter and went on to post 25 points during the fourth, comfortably ahead despite being outscored by one point in the final period.
A big key to the Warriors’ dominant stretch in the middle of the contest was slowing down the Pirates’ top scorer, Jonathan Villarreal, who posted a game-high 28 points and five of his team’s eight 3s.
“Once we knew he was hitting them, eventually we just went ahead and took him away completely,” Cipriano said. “We let the other guys shoot and see if they could do it. Not that they’re not good shooters, but I guess they struggled today.”
Santa Rosa held Villarreal scoreless in the third quarter.
Isaac Gutierrez added 10 points for Mathis.
Roland Segundo, Santa Rosa’s go-to big man off the bench, knocked down the first of two triples in the fourth quarter with 6:45 to go in the game, the first of which made it 68-44 with 6:45 to play.
“It was a good team effort,” Cipriano said. “(Our big men) can all hit from outside, so that’s something we practice quite a bit. The better everybody can shoot, the more dangerous we are.”
Santa Rosa advances to the regional quarterfinal round to face Corpus Christi London, which defeated Lytle 78-63 on Friday.