HARLINGEN — Coming off their biggest loss of the season against Los Fresnos, Harlingen High Cardinals coach Greg Yates wanted his team to use the loss as motivation.
The Cardinals did just that as they shook off a slow start and cruised past Brownsville Hanna 81-51 on Tuesday night.
“We came out sluggish in the first quarter, but we picked things up in the second quarter,” Yates said. “We got the momentum and hit some threes and it carried over into the second half, and once we were able to hit some shots we were able to settle in.”
The Cardinals improved to 3-1 in District 32-6A play and kept pace with both Los Fresnos and Harlingen South who both won Tuesday and are 4-0 in league play. Harlingen will now prepare for San Benito on Friday. Hanna (0-4) meanwhile is still in search for its first district win and host Weslaco East this weekend.
Harlingen fell behind early 11-3 in the opening quarter, but in the second quarter the Cards found their form and began the quarter on an 8-2 run that tied the game at 15-all. Kameryn Gonzalez gave Harlingen its first lead of the night at 19-18 with 4:10 in the second quarter and the Cards didn’t look back from there.
Junior Michael Arellano fueled the second-quarter run with 11 of his game high 23 points.
In the second period, Harlingen outscored Hanna 24-9 and held a comfortable 31-22 lead at the break.
“Coach wanted us to use Friday’s loss as motivation for tonight’s game,” Arellano said. “It was a bad loss; it was embarrassing the way we lost against Los Fresnos. We knew we had to come out tonight and play hard against a tough Hanna team.”
The third quarter was a mirror image of the second quarter with Harlingen outscoring Hanna 33-11. Antonio Aguilar hit a pair of threes while Arellano netted 10 points in the quarter.
Along with Arellano, two other Cards finished in double figures. Jeremey Vasquez scored 14 while John Ortega netted 11 points in the win.
