Evan Mohl

Aaron Jones, Alvin Jones and Kevin Brooks carried a short-handed Burges High School to victory Tuesday night on the basketball court.

The three scored all but six of the Mustangs points to lift Burges, missing two players to injury, past Austin, 67-57 in a key District 1-4A game at Austin. Only one other Mustang scored.

"We're always going to rely on those guys," Burges coach Paul Gutierrez said. "But we really needed them tonight."

Austin (5-8, 0-2 in district) led early, thanks to offensive rebounds and the 3-point shot. But the Mustangs (5-10, 2-0) tightened their perimeter defense and rebounding and made a slight offensive adjustment. It prompted a big 11-2 run to start the second half and Burges would never trail again.

"We just had to pick up our defense," Alvin Jones said. "It opened everything up."

Burges began running the Panthers off the 3-point line, so they could not catch and shoot. Austin had five 3-pointers in the first half and just two in the second half.

The Panthers had just five points in the third quarter and a four-minute scoring drought. Austin had only one offensive rebound in the second half.

Offensively, Gutierrez pulled Brooks out of the paint, to force 6-6 Oliver Guerrero away from the basket.

"We just wanted to try to make him play defense," Gutierrez said. "I actually have to thank my assistant for that one."

Aaron Jones and Brooks each had a 3-pointer and a dunk during the big third quarter.


Alvin Jones led all scorers with 22 points, including seven in the fourth quarter. Aaron Jones had 21 and Brooks added 17. Trey Burkes led Austin with 17, while Guerrero had 14 and Keion Criswell had 13.
