Cats continue making history
BRAWLEY — On Friday afternoon, Brawley Union High head coach Jeff Deyo said his boys’ basketball team had roughly 20 hours to relish its CIF San Diego Section Div. IV title before getting back to work in preparation of the CIF State Div. V tournament.
The Wildcats have had their sights not only on a section title, but a state title for more than a year and on Wednesday night took a step forward in achieving their ultimate goal.
In the first round of the CIF State Boys’ Basketball Championships, the No. 3 Wildcats hosted No. 13 New Designs Watts of Los Angeles and powered over the Knights 84-50 to advance to the second round of the tourney and continue to make school history.
The Wildcats used a near flawless first quarter performance to jump ahead 29-8 with every starter contributing at least two points including Moises Lazos, Jonathan Zarate, Casey Kline, Jose Cristerna and Daniel Gonzalez.
“It’s really gratifying to see that, and not to sound too arrogant, but that is the expectation,” Deyo said of his team.
Brawley’s start and eventual win was also an emotional one as it came without leading scorer and Imperial Valley League Player of the Year Adalberto Lopez, who suffered a knee injury in Friday’s championship game.
“Well that’s the test of true champions,” Deyo said. “Some teams lose their MVP and fall apart — these kids didn’t and that’s part of their never-die attitude and they’re going to need it in this tough tournament to get to where we want to be.”
The Wildcats did not take their foot off the gas and by the half owned a 49-20 advantage, showing as much determination as they did the first day of the season back in November.
“This team has played in about 150 competitive games between spring, summer and the regular season going back two years,” Deyo said, regarding the players’ passion to compete at the highest level.
Heading into the fourth quarter, Brawley led 62-37 and continued to be led by Lazos, Zarate and Kline, who played nearly the entire game.
Lazos led with 27 points, five rebounds and six assists, Zarate followed with 23 points, seven rebounds and three assists, while Kline had 17 points, 18 rebounds and two blocks.
“We had to do it for Beto,” Lazos said. “We all knew that we all had to step up and make plays.”
Lazos, one of the team’s five seniors, said he was happy to still be playing basketball at this point in the year and making history at Brawley High.
“I’m just really proud to be a part of this team and to have a great coach,” Lazos said.
With the win, the Wildcats improve to 27-7 and advanced to the second round of the state tournament hosting Olympian at 6 p.m. on Saturday night.
Olympian is the same team Brawley faced in Friday’s championship game.
“I’m excited to come out and play the way we did (Wednesday night) and continue getting wins in this tournament,” Lazos said.