By JOSHUA McKINNEY, Staff Writer
The Pace Vikings started the season with a golden ball in mind and that dream became reality Friday.
Trailing 17-13 after the first, Pace rode a 17-point second quarter to a 72-56 win over Mercedes at Pace to win the District 32-5A championship.
“It was a goal that we set from the get-go,” Pace coach Jose Luis Ramirez said. “We knew we had a team that if they worked really hard every single day and they put their minds to it, they could achieve (it) if they believe. And from Day 1 they did. Day 1 they gave me everything they had at practice and in games. We struggle sometimes but through it all they persevered. Tonight was an example of coming out and playing the way they knew how. Ain’t nobody going to touch them. They did a great job tonight.
“I’m happy with they way they played defense,” Ramirez added. “We struggled a little bit on offense but we managed to find some openings and attacked. Steven (Garza) showed up in a big way tonight and Andres (Salgado) as hurt as he was, showed up in a big place for us too. I couldn’t be any happier.”
Garza finished with a game-high 27 points for Pace, including 10 of Pace’s 17 in the second quarter. He had 18 by halftime.
“I’m not going to lie, I was kind of nervous at the beginning but I knew my brothers had my back and if was going to go, they were going to go with me,” Garza said.
Salgado came off the bench to score 17 points and had three steals. Alex Acosta had eight points and five assists, and both Luis Rodriguez and Angel Munoz had six points.
Rey Rincon led Mercedes with 16 points. Ricky Jimenez and Ryan Reyes both scored 12 points.
It was a rocky start to the game for the Vikings, who missed four of their first five shots and let the Tigers climb to a 9-3 lead early in the first.
Salgado came in the game and hit a 3 to cut Mercedes’ lead to three and start a 9-2 run, which gave Pace a 13-12 lead with 29 seconds left in the first.
Reyes made a 3-pointer and David Gabellan scored back to back to take the lead again at 17-13 going into the second.
Pace and Mercedes traded leads early in the second. A bucket from Luis Rodriguez gave Pace a 22-21 edge and Garza followed that with a 3 to extend the lead.
Garza drained a buzzer-beating 3 with a Mercedes player right in his face to give Pace a seven-point lead going into halftime.
Ramirez thinks the Vikings were just a little nervous going into a high-stakes game like this one.
“(It was) nerves, tension,” Ramirez said. “You want this game so badly that you overplay, and sometimes you’re up, you’re up, you’re up. They were telling me ‘I didn’t sleep all night. I didn’t sleep all night.’ You go through that high and by the time the game shows up, you kind of get psyched. So finally we got those pregame jitters out of the way and they knew it was time to work.”
The Vikings started the third quarter on a 10-2 run to put Mercedes away for good. The Tigers didn’t come within 12 points of the lead the rest of the game.
“I thought we struggled a little bit offensively,” Mercedes coach Rick Trevino said. “It’s a lot of credit to them defensively. We got out and ran, and they were getting back. We tried to move the ball around but it just felt like there were a lot of hands going around. Maybe an extra guy for Pace sometimes it felt like on the floor. They just came out and beat us. They were the much better team. They had the better night.”
Joshua McKinney covers high school sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @joshuabvherald.