The Aledo Bearcats basketball team continued its pre-district trek Tuesday, Nov. 26 with a home contest against the Midlothian Heritage Jaguars.
The Bearcats (5-0) and Jaguars competed to a 38-all tie at halftime, but the Bearcats juiced up their defensive effort in the second half and collected numerous easy scoring opportunities in transition as a result to produce a 73-67 win in front of the home crowd.
“We gave up a bunch of three’s in the first half, and I thought our guys adjusted really well in the second half not allowing any (three’s),” Bearcats first-year head coach Brian Blackburn said. “Defensively, running them (Midlothian Heritage) off the three-point line was our main point of emphasis during halftime, and they didn’t get any comfortable looks. It really helped us build a lead there in the fourth.”
Aledo senior Brett Barclay scored the first six points of the game that helped the Bearcats build an early 14-7 lead. However, the Jaguars stormed back to take a 16-14 lead on a 9-0 scoring run until junior guard Kaiden Clayborn knocked down a 3-pointer with 57 seconds left in the opening frame that gave Aledo a 17-16 edge heading into the second quarter.
In that period, playmaking from star senior guard Joaquin Pacheco on the break allowed Aledo to build on its lead. He found sophomore guard Caden Cunningham in transition for an easy two on a nice no-look feed and then scored it himself with 6:21 left to make it a 21-16 game. After Midlothian Heritage scored on its next possession, junior guard Enrique Pacheco, younger brother of Joaquin, hit a shot in the lane to stretch the lead back to five points at 23-18 with 5:28 remaining.
Then, Midlothian Heritage tipped the seesaw back in its favor with an 8-0 burst – capped by a long 3-pointer – that put the visitors in front 28-25 with 3:48 left before halftime.
Despite losing the lead, Aledo did not waver and neither did Midlothian Heritage. The two teams tied or traded the lead six times in the final four minutes of action. Trailing by six inside the final minute, Joaquin Pacheco drilled a long ball with 45 ticks remaining and sophomore guard Josiah Jenkins splashed in a 3-pointer of his own with 27 seconds left to level the score at 38-38 at halftime.
After the intermission, Aledo emerged with a new energy.
“I think Josiah Jenkins was really good for us in the third and fourth quarters, and he really gave us a spark defensively,” Blackburn said. “Townes, who was hurt most of last season, I think did a really good job of manning the paint for us in the second half. Enrique Pacheco also did a good job of handling the ball for us and he made a big free throw at the end.”
Joaquin Pacheco opened the third quarter by scoring Aledo’s first six points to match early buckets from the Jaguars. Later in the frame, he put back a missed 3-pointer with 1:42 left and Cunningham hit a breakaway layup less than 30 seconds later to give Aledo the advantage for good at 53-52. Enrique Pacheco added a fastbreak score with 56.7 seconds left and Jenkins beat the buzzer with a midrange jumper that gave the Bearcats a 57-52 lead entering the fourth quarter.
Aledo continued to use its principles of defense and transition to build a lead that grew to double figures in the final frame and fended off the Jaguars down the stretch in spite of a late 8-0 run from the visitors.
“We need to play with the same defensive intensity earlier in games as we did in the second half of this game,” Blackburn said. “We haven’t played in a week, and it kind of looked like it, so I’m excited to get back into a routine of playing on Tuesdays and Fridays.”
Joaquin Pacheco led all scorers with 29 points while Enrique Pacheco finished with 12. Cunningham and Jenkins netted nine points apiece while Barclay scored all six of his points in the first quarter.
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