Eagles ready to make waves at regional tournamentFree Access



Dalton Hobbs 40 throws down a slam dunk for the Pleasanton Eagles in their 100-52 win over Pearsall in the bi-district round of playoffs. J GARCIA | PLEASANTON EXPRESS

The no. 15-ranked Pleasanton Eagles (34-3) are ready to make a splash in their first Class 4A Region IV tournament appearance since 1991.

The Eagles’ run to the fourth round is the longest playoff run in program history since the regional semifinals were the third round in 1991.

“It feels really good,” senior Kade Loeffler said of the moment. “All of us [seniors] have worked really hard for this the past four years. We want it more than a lot of people, too.”

The Eagles booked their spot in Friday’s semifinal round at Texas A&M-Kingsville’s Steinke Center with a 77-47 win over Port Isabel on Tuesday night in the regional quarterfinals. Getting past the third round was always just out of reach for Pleasanton. Last year, they lost to Sinton in the same round.

Now that they’re into the regional tournament, nothing seems impossible.

“Everyone on this team wants to go as far as we can,” senior forward Dalton Hobbs said. “Us seniors, this is our last chance and the underclassmen know it and they want it just as bad.”

“To get over that hump, it says a lot about these kids, especially these seniors,” Head Coach Richard Marquez. “They’ve had a taste for it already. They’ve been there and they got it. It was one of their goals at the beginning of the season, to get past that round and get to the [regional] tournament.”

While the seniors and upperclassmen have been in a year-long process to get redemption, the likes of freshmen R.J. Marquez (13.7 ppg) and Jayce Krauskopf, and sophomore Juan Lopez have supplemented a team that returned all of their starters from a year ago.

Kameron Parks (1) draws a foul in Pleasanton’s 69-49 win over La Vernia on Feb. 11. SAM FOWLER | PLEASANTON EXPRESS

The reason those underclassmen have matured so quickly is because of the precedent set by the seniors.

“All four of those seniors, they’re leaders,” coach Marquez said. “They come in, they work hard. They’re real humble players. They work hard every single day. They take leadership in what we do. They come out and they guide our underclassmen to where they’re showing them what to do. They talk to them, they don’t get mad at them. … The main thing is they come in and show leadership.”

RJ Marquez (4) drives for a layup against Del Rio. J GARCIA | COURTESY PHOTO

While they wanted to avenge their loss to Sinton from a year ago, it wasn’t for the sole purpose of revenge. It was mainly just another step on the way to the regional tournament and a hopeful berth into the state tournament.

“Us seniors know there’s no guaranteed next game,” senior Kameron Parks said. “All of the underclassmen are riding behind us and have the same mentality as us — just go as far as we can go.”

Tuesday’s win set up a meeting with the no. 18-ranked Stafford Spartans (30-9) in the regional semifinals. Coach Marquez is implementing the same game-to-game mentality that his team has used all year and not paying any mind to the other half of the Region IV bracket that includes no. 16-ranked Boerne.

“We’re telling them to take it one game at a time,” Marquez said. “Whoever’s next in front of us is going to be our next opponent. I know there are some awesome teams out there that play really good, but our main focus right now is staying with Stafford.”

Tipoff for Pleasanton’s regional semifinal is scheduled for 8 p.m. The game will have a video stream broadcast on riosportslive.com and an audio-only stream will be carried on texassportsproductions.com.

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