WESLACO — Weslaco’s Mid Valley Classic’s championship stays in Weslaco for the second-straight year.
The Weslaco High Panthers successfully defended their title against the Edinburg High Bobcats, winning 63-32 Saturday night at Weslaco East High School.
“We were on a mission to defend our title,” Weslaco High head coach Griselda Fino said. “We had three days of brilliant basketball. Three days of fun, fun, basketball with a lot of good competitive teams. It is nice to be the last team standing.”
The Panthers took the lead in the first quarter and never looked back.
Weslaco High sophomore Alyssa Vasquez gave the Panthers a 16-8 cushion after to back-to-back 3-point plays. The first was a 3-pointer at the top of the arc, the next, the old-fashioned 3-pointer.
The sophomore guard finished at the basket superbly, especially when dealing with contact, even taking contact while finish with her less-favored hand, the left. Vasquez led the Panthers in scoring with 25 points.
The Panthers would go into halftime up 37-17.
Panthers senior Morgan Peralez was a dominate force in the paint and finished the game with 16 points and junior Raemie Medina chipped in with 11 points.
Edinburg High junior Madison Martinez led the Bobcats with 13 points and senior Lucero Jimenez finished with 11 points.
The Panthers went 5-0 in the tournament. Weslaco High beat Brownsville Pace, Edinburg North and Mercedes to advance to the platinum bracket where they defeated Sharyland High to set up the meeting with Edinburg High.
“We always have lofty goals,” Fino said. “Right now, it is our pre-district season and it is our responsibility to get better every day. I do not think everyone knows where we started.”
The Panthers have only one returning starter, Medina and returned Peralez from an ACL injury. Other than that, Weslaco High has a lot of underclassmen like Vasquez and players without many varsity minutes on the court.
“All summer long we got killed,” Fino said. “We got killed by everyone who you can imagine and every day they came back. We took baby steps and put one foot in front of the other. So, this feels super good. It is a tribute to our hard work, but we are nowhere near done. It is just the beginning for us.”
Brownsville Veterans Memorial defeated Sharyland High for third in the platinum bracket. Laredo LBJ beat Tuloso-Midway in the gold bracket final.
Edinburg North defeated Harlingen South to capture the silver bracket and Mission High beat Brownsville Hanna to win the bronze bracket.
“I really appreciate our administration and our school to allow us to do this,” Weslaco East head coach William Kromer said. “It is expensive to host a tournament. It is a large tournament and there is a lot of expenses. They made sure to afford it for our kids to have home games and promote our sport early in the season.”