Rodriguez leads Angleton to win, Judson beats Hightower

Good start to the Texas Invitation for the Angleton Wildcats who beat Pasadena Sam Rayburn 53-45 to open the Tournament with a win in pool play. Nathanael Rodriguez led all scorers with 22 points, with the majority of his points coming off putbacks in the paint. Ron Johnson added 10 points with two three-pointers for the Wildcats.

The Sam Rayburn Texans relied on the scoring of Junior point guard Xzavion Bordelon as he led the team with 16 points. Senior Deunte Walls followed close behind with 13.

Sophomore forward Keon Edwards didn’t have the type of game that we want to remember. Only eight points and half of those came from the free-throw line.

The Fort Bend Hightower Hurricanes had a four to five-point lead over the Converse Judson Rockets for most of the game, but in the end, Judson came away with the win, 77-75. Nine different Rockets scored and four of the nine reached double figures. Arthur Celestin led Judson in scoring with 15, Thomas Baird went for 14 with three three-pointers, Adrian Cohen and Dhimani Hernandez both added 13 points in the win.

“We hadn’t been sharing the ball the way we should have and we had to make the obvious plays to win,” said head Judson coach Victor Lopez. “We have a good mixture of shooters and players who can penetrate and score, and when we started finding the open man, we came back and won.”

The Hurricanes are rich in underclassmen and they were led by a freshman, one sophomore and junior. Sophomore Chris Felix had a game-high 24 points, followed by 19 points from freshman Bryce Griggs (2022) and junior guard Kristopher O’Neal (2020) chipped in with 14.

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