Experience helps Central Catholic basketball outlast Southside

The Buttons had played in two tournaments, winning the Harlandale ISD tourney championship Nov. 20, while Southside hadn’t played a tournament game. Perhaps most important, Central Catholic has seven seniors, five more than the Cardinals.

None of that seemed insignificant. But by the second half of the non-district game, it didn’t matter as much. Southside ramped up the intensity after halftime and slashed into Central Catholic’s 22-point lead. The Buttons held on for a 64-59 victory.

“We got over our little mistakes and played a lot better in the second quarter,” Central Catholic coach Bruce McConaghy said. “We really played well the last five minutes of the half. The third quarter wasn’t bad. The fourth quarter, we played good defense. We just didn’t rebound and they were getting it to the rim.”

Southside outscored Central Catholic 43-26 in second half.

“We were taking questionable shots and we needed to get to the free-throw line,” Cardinals coach Shawn Dalbert said of the first half. “We were able to stop their dribble-drive and make them settle for some shots. That’s what started the turnovers.”

Gabe Hinojosa (21 points) and Josh Daniels combined for three free throws that reduced the Buttons’ lead to 50-35 with 1:11 left in the third quarter. Central Catholic junior guard Josh Devora retaliated with a fast-break layup.

“We’ve really come together as a team,” said Devora, who led Central Catholic with 23 points. “No one is selfish. We just want to take good shots.”

Andrew Mendoza (24 points), who scored 18 second-half points, opened the Cardinals’ fourth-quarter scoring. Three points from guard Tristan Saldana and a three-point basket from Hinojosa cut the Buttons’ lead to 60-47 with 3:46 remaining.

A pair of free throws by Mendoza capped a six-point Southside run with 1:11 left. But Devora made two clinching free throws with 34.7 seconds.

“They’re veterans,” Dalbert said. “They start five and bring two more off the bench. And they’re all straight basketball players. I’m proud we were right there with them.”

Mendoza, Hinojosa and Saldana are Southside’s only veterans.

“We don’t want to be playing our best basketball right now,” Dalbert said. “We don’t want to be peaking until the playoffs.”

A driving layup from Solomon Benavides (10 points) put Central Catholic ahead 14-6 lead in the first quarter. Then the Buttons turned up the heat.

Lamont Williams scored four-consecutive points to increase the lead to 25-12 with 3:55 until halftime. Central Catholic went into halftime on a 13-4 run following layups from Xavier Gonzalez and Mateo Ortega-Rios (off a steal).

“At the end of the first quarter, we knew we should have been beating them by more,” Devora said. “It started with defense. We got open shots and we kept leaking out on the fastbreak. That really helped us.”

McConaghy admitted the Buttons were a little tired in the second half after making a six-game title run in the Harlandale ISD Tournament.

“On any given night, I’ve got four or five guys that can score in double digits — maybe even six,” McConaghy said. “We’ve got to be able to defend and we’ve got to be able to rebound.”