Odessa High couldn’t shake off the rust from the Christmas break.

Thursday against Houston Spring Woods, in the Bronchos’ first game since the holiday vacation began, their progress came to a halt with a lack of consistency.

On offense, the Bronchos settled for low-percentage shots, and on defense, they didn’t communicate and gave the Tigers easy baskets at times.

That allowed Spring Woods to dictate the pace of the game and eventually put the Bronchos away.

Spring Woods downed Odessa High 66-59 in both teams opening game of the Bryon Johnston Holiday Classic at the Chaparral Center.

Tigers’ guard Jesse Zarzuela led all scorers with 27 points. Odessa High was led by Isaac Hernandez, who had 20, and Miguel Fonseca, who finished 19 points.

“You could tell we’d been off for five days,” Odessa High head coach Jance Morris said. “That’s not an excuse; we just have to get a lot better.”

In the Bronchos last game before Christmas, they handled Lubbock Monterey by pulling away for a 24-point victory.

That performance and the one on the hard court Thursday didn’t compare. Throughout the game, the Bronchos (12-5) had trouble rebounding, allowing the Tigers second-chance shots. Many of Odessa High’s offensive possessions ended after one shot.

“They outplayed us and they did what they’re supposed to do,” Morris said about Spring Woods. “They had a good game plan against us. We didn’t execute very well and we got a lot of stuff to fix.”

Fonseca and Hernandez scored all but two of Odessa High’s first-half points and were the driving force for their team early.

The Bronchos momentarily led in the second quarter after Zarzuela got into foul trouble and had to sit out the last few minutes of the half.

That pattern repeated itself as Zarzuela picked up his fourth foul early into the second half, allowing the Bronchos and Tigers to trade the lead until Fonseca drained a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to hand Odessa High the lead heading into the final eight minutes.

The Bronchos’ defense quickly let them down after that.

Zarzuela hit a 3-pointer on the Tigers’ first possession of the fourth quarter, and after a quick steal and a pass to teammate Martaveon Jones, Spring Woods was up by four.

That’s the closest the Bronchos would get the rest of the game.

Odessa High twice brought the Tigers’ lead back down to four after constant fouls sent Spring Woods’ players to the free-throw line, but the Bronchos had dug themselves too big a hole from which to recover.

Morris said this is only a one-day sample of his team, but shows that the Bronchos have room to get better in every facet of the game.

“We all played bad from the start,” Fonseca said.

“I’m really confident in my team. We’ve got great players … I feel like we’re going to be alright this whole weekend.”

Odessa High doesn’t have long to think about the loss. It returns to action at 12:30 p.m. today against District 2-6A rival Midland High at the Chaparral Center, and plays again at 7:30 p.m. against Belton High at Midland High School to conclude Pool A tournament action.

Morris’ focus has always been to get the Bronchos at their best when district play starts in two weeks. Their pair of games today will be a big test in how much further they have to go to reach that potential. 

“This showed everybody that we’ve got to get a lot better before district starts,” Morris said.
