By LARRY GAGE
Special to the PRESS
The Port Isabel Tarpons went on the road Tuesday night and lost a 54-40 decision to Edinburg IDEA Quest in a non-district basketball game.
“We’re getting better,” first-year head coach Anthony Velarde told the Press Wednesday morning. “We’re just not putting together a complete game. We carried a lead last night into the fourth quarter and it’s almost like, when we get a late lead, we don’t know how to react.”
The team fell into an early hole and had to play catch-up. “We started out sloppy,” Velarde said Wednesday. “For some reason we felt compelled to force shots and passes early. They hit some big three’s in the first quarter.”
The Tarpons fought back in the second quarter but still trailed by nine at the half. They took a 31-29 lead in the third quarter. “We led for a while and it was back and forth. Turnovers and free throws and missed layups really hurt us down the stretch.”
The team is still coming together, according to Velarde, and those players who also played football are still playing catch-up.
“We’ve got some football guys,” Velarde told the Press. “It’s kinda’ like starting over in a way because I’m experimenting with different lineups, trying to mix and see what kind of chemistry we can get.”
Fundamentals are getting a lot of emphasis and the fundamental skill of getting the ball to drop through the hoop may be the most important one.
“It takes practice,” Velarde said. “You can learn to shoot the wrong way and still get the ball near the rim, and think you’re doing it right. But when you change it you don’t see an immediate impact sometimes. Things don’t just happen overnight. You’ve got to work hard – there’s no magic wand. You’ve got to believe and put the time in, and keep grinding at it.”
The head man knows that it’s partly about having to learn a new system under a new head coach. “We’re still working hard on the fundamentals, but sometimes in the heat of the moment that pass is just a little too high. And sometimes it’s just poor execution.”
Coach Velarde talked about the problem of helping a player improve his shooting performance. “Some of them I’ve tried to work with and some of them I just leave alone. You have someone, a senior in high school, who’s been shooting that way his entire life, and sometimes you do more harm than good trying to change it.”
It’s tournament season and the Tarpons have two tournaments coming right up. This weekend they’re off to Lyford for a three day tournament, and next week they’ll compete in La Feria’s Tommy Wiseman Tournament.
“It’s great for a number of reasons,” Velarde said. “You get to focus on basketball for the entire day and you get to watch other teams. It’s better than watching film.”
“There’s no better thing than competition. We compete against ourselves in practice, but there’s no substitute for suiting up and going up against someone in a different color uniform. We’re really looking forward to using this as a time to grow as a team.”
The Tarpons’ first-round opponent in the Lyford tournament on Thursday was district rival Rio Hondo. The game was scheduled for a 1 p.m. tip-off.
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