Doubt it? Ask Geronimo Navarro after the Panthers’ 57-46 loss to Jarrell in a Class 2A area-round playoff game on Friday night.
The District 28-2A champions started poorly, missing numerous shots including a couple air balls on layups. They rallied to tie the game early in the fourth quarter and then went colder than Greta “I want to be alone” Garbo’s shoulder.
The victory, Jarrell’s 24th in 33 starts, advances the Cougars into the Region IV quarterfinals against Hallettsville - which beat San Antonio Cole 83-73 - on Wednesday at a site and time to be determined.
With 6-foot-1 junior Daniel Tucker and 6-1 senior Taylor Cooper leading the way, Jarrell opened a 13-point lead at 23-10 with three minutes and 25 seconds to go in the first half. Tucker scored 11 consecutive points in a stretch of 2:20 to power the Cougars, who held a 26-17 advantage at the half.
With coach Bob Ermel directing the final game of his 43-year career, Navarro roared back to outscore Jarrell 16-8 in the third quarter. The surge continued into the fourth period. A layup off a long pass to Will Valdez tied the score at 37-37 and his free throw put the Panthers (19-9) ahead briefly at 38-37 with seven minutes to go.
Unfortunately for Navarro, its offense fell back into a chasm of turnovers and missed shots as the Panthers’ next points came on a field goal by Valdez with 2:51 left to play.
However, by that point, Jarrell, following the lead of Cooper, had overtaken the Panthers and built a 45-38 advantage.
Jarrell led 47-41 with 2:20 to go. The game’s next nine points were scored on free throws - seven by the Cougars - to give the winners a 54-43 lead with 35 seconds to play. Junior Aaron Mueller, who pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds and six assists, had four of the seven successes.
Veteran Jarrell coach Drew Sumner, who celebrated his 47th birthday with the victory, gave his team mixed reviews.
“We could have played a lot better than we did,” Sumner said. “The key for us was having good players who did what they needed to do to get the win.
“I thought they (Navarro) did a good job rebounding against us and confused us with their defense. We concentrated defensively on No. 3 (Zach Hernandez), 33 (A.K. Williams) and 30 (Valdez).”
The Cougars held Hernandez to 14 points, Williams to 12 and Valdez to seven. Hernandez missed a layup completely early in the game and spent most of the first half hearing chants of “air ball, air ball.”
Jarrell also had a tough night shooting, making 19 of 49 overall (39 percent) - 16 of 38 on 2-point attempts and 3 of 11 on 3-pointers.
Tucker led Jarrell with 21 points and Cooper added 14. Kreece Cooper and Mueller each scored nine.
Jarrell, the runner-up in District 25-2A, had opened playoff action with a one-sided victory over Weimar. Navarro had a bi-district bye.
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