CORPUS CHRISTI — The Santa Rosa Warriors haven’t been taken to the limit in a game since before district play nearly two months ago.
In Friday’s Class 3A area-round matchup against the Odem Owls, that changed.
Despite watching a 15-point second-half lead get widdled down to three in the waning seconds, the Warriors bent but didn’t break as they held on for a 47-44 victory Friday night at Veterans Memorial High School in Corpus Christi.
The win sends the Warriors to the regional quarterfinals for the third-consecutive year, but after watching key players get into foul trouble and other miscues late, there won’t be any celebrating.
“Hopefully (this game) wakes (the team) up,” Santa Rosa head coach Johnny Cipriano said after the game. “We started off OK, but Matt (Garcia) is in foul trouble so I didn’t start him in the second half and Leo (Lara) getting in foul trouble hurts, too. We didn’t execute the way we should. Not finishing with the same people you started with changes the momentum of the game.
“We missed crucial free throws and layups that would’ve put the game away earlier, but Odem did a good job of adjusting to what we were doing.”
Full story at RGVSports.com
