Tijuana Zonkeys Fall to Third Place After Splitting Series With Frayles de Guasave
Tijuana, Mexico
The Tijuana Zonkeys wrapped up a two-game series at the Auditorio Municipal de Tijuana against Frayles de Guasave last Saturday, May 5, with a strong 100-87 victory. The two-game set started on Friday, May 4, as the Striped Donkeys fell 101-95 in the opening game.
The team from Sinaloa stood out, as its name translates into “Friars”, and inclusively use a brown and yellow uniform. As the San Diego Padres were no-hit on Friday against the Dodgers in Monterrey, the Frayles did not struggle to get points against the Zonkeys in Tijuana.
The game was tight as the first period ended with Guasave up 34-33, and by halftime the visiting team had a narrow 56-55 lead. James Penny’s team did make a comeback in the third period as it ended with the Zonkeys up 76-73, but ultimately Los Burro-Zebras did end up losing the game 101-95.
Frayles’ captain Sammuel Yeager led his squad with 30 points and Jaron Michael Martin also had an impressive game with 21 points, six rebounds, and four assists. For the Zonkeys, the standouts were Marvell Waithe with 26 points and Mychal Ammons with 21 points. Both players also had nine rebounds each.
The three-point game was completely absent for Los Fronterizos as the team was collectively 7-for-25 from long range. Point guard Gary Mondragon was the most disappointing player as he went 0-for-6 from three-point range.
Chula Vista native Carlos Perez netted himself 11 points and had a chance to speak to EVT about the game and his performance. In regards to the game, Perez said, “It was a tough game because it was one of our better offensive nights, but we just couldn’t get it together on the defensive side.”
The former Hilltop High School student also gave his opinion on his personal performance. Perez said, “I feel like I could have done a lot more on the rebounds. I didn’t play my best defensive game and I feel like I had a horrible game defensively.”
The second game of the series was much more kind to the Zonkeys in all aspects of play as the home team came away with a dominant 100-87 win.
Sammuel Yeager repeated his performance from Friday night and scored 30 points for Guasave, but really proved to be the only threat to James Penny’s team.
Marvell Waithe was outstanding again for the Zonkeys with 32 points on Saturday night, along with Mychal Ammons and San Diego native Karim Rodriguez, who netted 18 points each. The win improved Tijuana to an 11-6 record, but the series overall plummeted the border city team to third-place in the CIBACOPA.
The Zonkeys will stay at home to start a two-game set against Nauticos de Mazatlan this Tuesday, May 8 and Wednesday, May 9.
Francisco, 26, Chula Vista/Tijuana. I have been a Padres fan all my life, did most of the series previews and recaps in the Padres’ 2016 season for EVT. Now I focus more on the local soccer scene. Tijuana Xolos, San Diego Loyal, San Diego Wave.