Warhorses beat Pearsall to lock up 2nd seed

Daniel Ramirez gets the ball in the paint during Devine’s win over Pearsall. Photo by Sonia Villarreal.

A strong third quarter by the Devine Warhorses helped propel them by the Pearsall Mavericks 40 to 31 in Lytle last Friday night in the District 29-4A 2nd place playoff-seeding ballgame. Devine fell behind 11 to 5 after the first and was still slightly behind 18 to 15 going into the halftime break. The Warhorses found their scoring groove by putting up 16 3rd quarter points to give them some breathing room at 31 to 25 entering the 4th quarter.
“We had a hard time scoring but our defense kept us in the ballgame,” stated Head Coach PJ Wells. “Our defense has kept us in a lot of games this year. I’m proud of the team’s effort.”
Devine shot 37% from the floor hitting 14 of 38 opportunities. Pearsall shot 27% on 11 of 41 attempts. The Warhorses outscored the Mavericks in the paint 16 to 10. Other than those two stats, the game was fairly even throughout as Devine led 3 to 2 in both blocked shots and second chance points. Devine also led in offensive rebounds 8 to 6 and made two more free throws at 7 of 15 compared to Pearsall’s 5 of 10.
Connor Schmidt was the only Warhorse in double figures with 14 points. He also had 9 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal. Zaarion Jackson followed with 9 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 charge taken. Others: Angelo Gonzalez 7 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals; Daniel Ramirez 4 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, and 3 blocked shots; Leonard Pompa 2 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal; Jacob Oyola 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist; Darren Morales 1 point; Beau Cardenas 1 point (statistics generated by Hudl.com).
The victory allows the Warhorses to play Pleasanton in the bi-district matchup that will have been played Tuesday, February 21 at Southwest San Antonio High School (the recap from that game will be in next week’s Devine News).
If the Warhorses are victorious in their matchup with Pleasanton, they will face the winner of Sinton and La Feria on Friday at a place and time to be determined. Please check the Devine News Twitter feed, @devinewssports, for updated information.

By Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer

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