Chris Ramirez, Octavio Benavides lead Laredo St. Augustine past Fort Bend Christian in TAPPS 5A basketball playoffs

Laredo St. Augustine's Chris Ramirez and Octavio Benavides put on a shooting clinic and combined to score 54 points, powering the Knights to a runaway 80-48 win over Fort Bend Christian in the opening round of the 2022-23 TAPPS 5A boys basketball playoffs,

LAREDO, Texas — Laredo St. Augustine was riding high entering the first round of the TAPPS 5A boys basketball playoffs.

St. Augustine entered the postseason with a six-game winning streak and fresh off an overtime victory against Brownsville St. Jospeh to clinch the TAPPS District 4-5A championship.

The Knights continued riding that wave of momentum into the opening round of the TAPPS Class 5A playoffs. 

Led by sensational shooting by Octavio Benavides and Chris Ramirez, who combined to score 52 points, Laredo St. Augustine rolled to an 80-48 blowout win over the Fort Bend Christian Eagles in their TAPPS 5A bi-district playoff matchup Monday night.

“We came to play today,” Laredo St. Augustine head coach Rodrigo Romo said.

“Fort Bend (Christian) is really good, they come from the Houston district and that district is tough. They have taken some of those top teams to the wire. We knew that we were in for a fight. Octavio (Benavides), Chris (Ramirez), everyone, they all came to play today and I am very proud of them.”

Now Laredo St. Augustine takes on Second Baptist School from Houston in the TAPPS Area Championship. The logistics will be worked on later this week.

Ramirez put on a shooting clinic, pouring in a game high 27 points and canned five triples as the Knights dictate the pace of the game. Laredo St. Augustine raced out to a 21-14 lead at the end of the opening quarter.

“We wanted to run and we wanted to put some pressure on them defensively,” Romo said. “We wanted to get some easy baskets. We knew that they were good defensively and we figured if we can get some transition baskets, it could make it a little bit easier on our scorers.

Benavides helped provide that 1-2 punch for Laredo St. Augustine finished with 25 points with 11 points coming in the first quarter. The Fort Bend Christian Academy Eagles had no answer for Ramirez and Benavides as they help open the floor for Rafa Garcia in the paint.

Garcia finished with 12 hard-earned points as Laredo St. Augustine took a 41-20 lead at halftime.

The third quarter belonged to Ramirez who connected on four triples and hit a field goal as Laredo St. Augustine started to pull away and open up the gap on Fort Bend Christian Academy. The Knights held a 62-35 lead as the Eagles were kept scoreless for four minutes while Ramirez was connected from all corners of the court.

Fort Bend Christian attempted to change up its lineup to try to slow down Laredo St. Augustine, but the Knights just had too many weapons on both ends of the floor. 

The Eagles struggled to keep up with St. Augustine's red-hot shooters and ultimately couldn't put a dent in the Knights' lead that grew with each passing second.

With Ramirez, Benavides and Alejandro Duron commanding all the attention from the Eagles with their perimeter play defensively, Laredo St. Augustine started to go inside to their big man, Garcia. 

He was able to twist and twirl his way to the basket and scored eight points during that stretch, as the Knights led 75-43 with 2:52 left in the game.

The Knights were well in control, as Romo started to empty the bench and gave some quality minutes to his reserve players who were instrumental in keeping their energy going throughout the entire second half with the help of the student body and home crowd.

Laredo St. Augustine (25-4) advances to the area round of the TAPPS 5A boys basketball playoffs, where the Knights will face the Houston Second Baptist Eagles (21-8) at a to-be-determined time and location on Friday, Feb. 18.

Check out SBLive's exclusive photo gallery from the game:

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PHOTO GALLERY — LAREDO ST. AUGUSTINE 80, FORT BEND CHRISTIAN 48

All photos by Clara Sandoval