Before the start of the season, Aledo Bearcats head coach JD Robinson said being blue collar had to be the identity for this team. They had to work harder. They had to grind their way to victory. They had to leave their egos at the door and play as a team if they were going to have a shot at making a splash in the District 5-5A standings.
And that’s exactly what they are doing. The Bearcats now find themselves in the thick of the playoff race in fourth place in the league standings.
The past two outings for the varsity Bearcats squad (15-10 overall, 4-3 in district) made it clear that message was received. As of late, Aledo has found ways to come up big when it matters most. With wins over Northwest and the District 5-5A leading Saginaw Rough Riders in the past week, this blue-collar squad finds themselves riding a three-game win streak.
Aledo is finding ways to win, but these wins are not for the faint of heart. On Friday, Jan. 19, a late trip to the free-throw line made the difference in a 43-42 win over Northwest. The following game on Tuesday, Jan. 23, it was a defensive stand in the fourth quarter that made the difference over Saginaw.
Aledo led the Rough Riders on their home floor for much of the first half as the Bearcats took a 14-11 advantage at the end of the first before owning a 25-21 lead heading into the locker room at halftime.
Coming out of the break, Aledo got a reminder as to why Saginaw stood alone atop the district standings. The Rough Riders outpaced the visiting Bearcats 16-11 in the third quarter, regaining the momentum and taking a 37-36 lead into the final stanza.
When the two teams met back in December in Aledo, Saginaw narrowly escaped with a 58-57 win in overtime. Determined not to let this one slip away, the Bearcats defensive pressure wreaked havoc on the home team, as Aledo allowed just four points of offense out of Saginaw in the final eight minutes of action.
At the other end of the floor, Aledo did exactly what was necessary to close out the game. The Bearcats scored 11 points, including a 4-for-6 performance at the free-throw line, to hand the Rough Riders their first district loss of the season.
The Bearcats trailed Northwest by two points in their final possession of the game. With just over a second left on the clock, Joaquin Pacheco drew a foul while attempting a three-pointer to win the game.
With the game on the line and a lone made free throw in the game to his credit prior to stepping up to the charity stripe, Pacheco didn’t even appear to be phased in the least by the gravity of the moment. With ice water in his veins, he knocked down his first two attempts, tying the game at 42-all as the Texans called a timeout in an attempt to rattle the first-year varsity guard.
All season long, when the Bearcats have needed someone to will the team back into a game, Pacheco has been the guy. Friday was no different, as he came out of the timeout with a look of steely determination on his face as he stared down the bucket preparing to take his final shot. The ball sailed through the air as if it were on tracks hitting the target and snapping the twine to give the home team a one-point advantage with just over a second left on the clock.
Northwest’s last-ditch effort to sink a game-winning half court shot was nowhere near the goal as the final buzzer sounded. The Aledo bench swarmed the court, celebrating with Pacheco after such a gritty display.
“They’re relentless,” Robinson said, praising his team following the win over Northwest. “I get emotional, just because I’m so proud of them. I told them if they’ll just keep working hard, good things will happen. We were far from perfect. We turned that ball over too dadgummed much. We gave them a couple second-chance opportunities. We missed assignments on shooters. We did some things wrong. I don’t know if we deserved it, but I told them if they’ll just keep working hard, keep playing the right way, and if nobody cares about anything else but winning, good things will happen. I think that’s what happened.”
With just a handful of games left on the schedule, and no game slated for Friday, the Bearcats will have the opportunity to extend their current win streak against a Brewer Bears club that has suffered a lone district defeat in two seasons. The same Saginaw team Aledo beat on Tuesday, handed Brewer their only district loss this year back on Jan. 2.
Aledo will host Brewer on Tuesday, Jan. 30, with tip-off scheduled for 7:30 pm.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | FINAL | |
| Aledo | 14 | 11 | 9 | 11 | 45 |
| Saginaw | 11 | 10 | 16 | 4 | 41 |
Aledo scoring: Jackson Todd 18, Jack Sawyer 13, Joaquin Pacheco 12, Cohen Christie 2.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | FINAL | |
| Aledo | 10 | 12 | 9 | 12 | 43 |
| Northwest | 11 | 9 | 7 | 15 | 42 |
Aledo scoring: Joaquin Pacheco 17, Cohen Christie 8, Owen Peterson 7, Jack Sawyer 6, Jackson Todd 5.
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