HARLINGEN — It wasn’t the way Harlingen South wanted to start the season, but after a hard-fought game against a tough McAllen High team, there was plenty to build on.
Noah Perez led the team with 11 and Brandon Bennett added 10 as the Hawks (0-1) fell to the Bulldogs 55-39 on Tuesday afternoon at the Harlingen South gymnasium.
“I saw some good things and I saw some thing we need to work on,” said Harlingen South head coach Brian Molina. “McAllen High Is a very good team and very well coached, but they’re a playoff team and I wanted to put ourselves in a position where we could learn from a game like this against a good opponent.”
And McAllen (2-1) was every bit of “good” as coach Molina stated.
Deshaun Primus scored 13 points, both Sergio Ortega and Brian Argil had 11, while Isayah West contributed nine for the Bulldogs.
Yet despite being down by as much as 12 at the end of the first period, Harlingen South managed to chip away at the deficit and headed into the half trailing 26-18.
After the break, Harlingen South quickly went on an 8-0 run that saw the Hawks even up the score at 26-26 with 4:40 left in the third period.
However, that would be as close as the score would get for South as the Bulldogs outscored the Hawks 12-4 the remainder of the third and 17-10 in the fourth.
“Being this early in the season, this wasn’t the only third quarter that we have come out of the half slow,” said McAllen head coach Ryan Flores. “We have to be ready to go all four quarters, from the opening tip to the fourth quarter.
“These games are to learn that we need to come out with a little more fire in the second half. Because, yeah, they did go on a 8-0 run to start the third quarter and made it a ball game in the third quarter, but I just told them to keep their heads in the game, play hard, play smart and weather the storm, and we’ll be all right in the fourth.
“We did a lot of good things today. I saw a lot of effort and a lot of energy from every body on the floor. We were focused, ready to play and ready to play hard. That’s what I tell them. It doesn’t matter if it’s a non-district tournament game or district game, you have to be ready to go.”
Harlingen South heads to Edinburg Economedes next Tuesday before traveling to San Antonio for a tournament next weekend.
