Vela advances to second round after defeating Rivera

EDINBURG — Two of the region's leading scorers — Jordan Bustamante for Robert Vela and Reggie Clark for Brownsville Rivera — went at it here on Tuesday in a bi-district matchup for the Conference 5A Division 1 basketball championship.

Bustamante and the SaberCats came out with the dub, 68-48. He had quite the night with 30 points, off of 12 for 22 shooting.

The first quarter started off somewhat close as Vela was holding onto a small lead, despite the 16 points coming from Bustamante. However, Rivera's offense has a bit of free range as three of the Raiders hit three 3-pointers. Through some fast breaks and a buzzer beating three from Bustamante that hit nothing but net, Vela was up 23-14 after the first.

In the second, Vela's scrappy full-court defense did lead to some easy buckets for the SaberCats. Being down 29-16, Clark showed a spark for his team as he hit two three-pointers from his own island on the right wing during two consecutive trips.

Clark had 9 points for his ball club in the second half, but Vela did not make it easy for him to get open. If he drove, he was met by two defenders. If Vela was pressing, there was usually two defenders ready to swarm him.

The press by Vela led to some turnovers and full-court passes from Bustamante that ended up earning the SaberCats the win. He had five assists on the night.

Clark, despite the troubles from the defense, had himself a solid night with 20 points.

Head Coach Lucio Rodriguez said he was proud of the boys and how they played.

"I feel grat for the boys, you know, love seeing them celebrate with their family, celebrate with their teams, and that's what coaching is about," he said.

Vela will have a rematch of last year's playoff game against Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial on Friday.