By HENRY MILLER

After the Mercedes boys basketball team did a thorough dismantling of Sharyland High during the a little before the midway point of the season, 89-63 (it was nowhere near that close actually, except the Rattlers came back against the Tigers’ bench in the final period), coach Rick Salinas was happy to get a glimpse of what his team could accomplish.

Still, Mercedes had a problem – they were 8-6 at that point but had no identity. Talent, oh my they had. Salinas had – and still has talent coming out of his ears. Shooting, they had – offense, defense, point guard, shooter, slasher….you name it, they had it (well, maybe everything but a lot of height). But this was a true case of not knowing how they fit in together. Salinas said at that point “We’re still trying to figure out who we are.”

Earlier the week before they got a smack in the mouth, losing all four games in a non-district tournament. “That, hopefully wakes us up,” Salinas said. “And it doesn’t discourage them.”

Then they came out and snuck by Edcouch-Elsa on the road in overtime, 73-70. Then they fairly easily dispatched of Donna, Brownsville Lopez and Valley View by an average of 25 points.

IDs please? Suddenly they all had them. And not only did they know who they were, everybody else in the district knew as well.

“We have a lot of talent on this team and when we play our style of basketball we can be pretty dangerous,” Salinas said. “We just need to keep working.”

They kept working, and kept winning – 14 straight games. The Tigers finishes second in the district, but also took a win over perennial power Brownsville Veterans, beating the Chargers by 20, 71-51 on the road.

The rest of the regular season had maybe one challenging game, a 63-60 win at Brownsville Pace, but the remaining games was something like this:

19-point win over Donna

33-point win over Lopez

20-point win over Valley View…

You get the picture, right?

They defeated PSJA Southwest to win their bi-distrct title, and 14th straight game.

Alas, the Tigers finally grew tired and fell to Laredo Martin, 47-42, in the Area Round. But by then, the team comprised of floor captain Jared Castaneda, offensive machine Brandon Lozoya, sharpshooter Jordan Ovalle, center/forward/point guard when needed Caleb Arthur and a supporting cast who all showed they too could be dangerous, a put together a season to remember – and they all ended up knowing who each other was on and off the court.