WESLACO — Weslaco East head coach Zeke Rodriguez had one message for his team trailing by four points during the break against Edcouch-Elsa on Friday.
“I told them, ‘You can’t let them come into our house and take what’s ours. You got to protect your house,’” Rodriguez said.
The Wildcats responded with nine unanswered points to begin the third quarter and pulled out a 44-39 win over the Yellow Jackets at Weslaco East High School.
“They came out fired up. We’ve been working really hard to prepare for this game and they executed,” he said.
The Wildcats’ win creates a tie for the No. 2 seed in District 32-5A between Weslaco East (18-14, 9-4) and Edcouch-Elsa (22-13, 9-4). The Yellow Jackets emerged victorious 62-50 during their first meeting Jan. 18.
“Coach talked to us and let us know it’s our home court, our last home game as seniors and we wanted to come out with a win,” senior Jaime Carriaga said.
The Weslaco East post finished with eight points and eight rebounds, while teammate Danny Mendoza added eight of his own. The Wildcats outscored the Yellow Jackets 25-16 during the second half.
Edcouch-Elsa’s Joey Suarez scored 13 of his game-high 18 points during the first half. Yellow Jackets guard JP Olivarez chipped in with 12 points and three assists.
Weslaco East will hit the road for its regular season finale against Brownsville Porter at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Brownsville Porter High School.
“We got Porter and hopefully we execute and do our job and force a seeding game against Edcouch-Elsa again,” Rodriguez said.
Edcouch-Elsa closes the regular season with a rivalry game against Mercedes at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Edcouch-Elsa High School.
If both the Wildcats and Yellow Jackets win Tuesday, a seeding game will likely be played to determine the No. 2 and No. 3 seed in District 32-5A.
