By JOSHUA McKINNEY, Staff Writer
Pace ended the first three quarters with a lead, but it was the final one that did in the Vikings on Tuesday.
PSJA North beat Pace 49-42 on the strength of 21 fourth-quarter points.
For Pace coach Jose Luis Ramirez, it was a matter of the Vikings not playing up to his expectations.
“I can’t be upset that we lost,” Pace coach Jose Luis Ramirez said. “It’s not like we lost to chumps. PSJA North is a tough team. I don’t think we played at the level we’ve been seeing or the level that I expect from them every night now. We didn’t play at that level, and I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed in my team. They came out strong as I felt they could. They played hard all game, and I’m not disappointed by that.”
The Vikings came into the quarter leading 31-28. The teams went back and forth during the frame.
The Raiders led for the first time during the second half on a rebound and two-point score by Leo Torres, which gave them a 41-39 edge with 3:02 left on the clock.
Pace point guard Alex Acosta found Andres Salgado on the wing. Salgado fired off a shot from behind the arc to give the Vikings a 42-41 lead with 1:55 to play.
But on the next possession, PSJA North’s Anthony Chavez drained a 3-pointer to give the visitors a 44-42 lead.
The Raiders finished with five more free throws to clinch the game.
Ramirez couldn’t pinpoint what went wrong for Pace at the end of the game, but he knows it must be corrected before a rematch against the team that ended the Vikings’ season last year.
“I don’t know if it was the weather or just one of those days,” he said. “I wish I knew so I could fix it. But we’ll have to bounce back. We don’t have much time to mope. We have a game against Mission Veterans Memorial on Thursday. It was the team we faced in the playoffs last year, so we’re hungry for that.”
PSJA North coach Jaime Gongora thinks his team’s adjustments to Pace’s defense, which ran a 1-3-1 zone that gave the Raiders fits throughout the first half, made the difference in their offensive production during the second half.
“It slowed us down until we got adjusted,” PSJA North coach Jaime Gongora said. “When we got in the second half, we started attacking the middle instead of shooting 3s. On that, I thought we did a really good job.”
Chavez and Torres each scored 10 points to lead PSJA North’s scorers.
Esteban Garza scored 17 points to lead the Vikings. Salgado finished the game with 15 points and five steals.
Pace started the game on a 7-0 run and forced several turnovers early, but a couple of 3-pointers helped PSJA North cut Pace’s lead to 10-8 by the end of the first quarter.
PSJA North scored seven straight points to take a 15-10 lead early in the second.
A three-point shot from Garza and a score from Salgado stopped the Raiders’ scoring streak with a 3 from Garza and a layup by Salgado to tie the game at 15. Pace ended the first half ahead 18-16.
Joshua McKinney covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @joshuabvherald.