By JOSHUA MCKINNEY, Staff Writer
Brownsville Veterans Memorial didn’t play its usual brand of sharp basketball against Rivera but came up with big plays in the fourth to come away with the win.
Brownsville Veterans defeated Rivera 60-52 in a District 32-6A game Friday at home.
Winning close games is what championship-caliber clubs do, and it’s something that will help Brownsville Veterans come playoff time.
“It’s very stressful but you have to win a tight game,” Brownsville Veterans coach Larry Gibson said. “Most of the games when you get to the next level, they’re all tight games. When you can win the tight games it says something. It says that you’re a pretty good team when you can win through adversity and we had a lot of adversity tonight. Our kids came through and won it in the fourth quarter, and outscored them 16-6. I think that was definitely the turning point in the game.”
The Chargers led by as much as 10 points halfway through the second but their lead disappeared over the next quarter and a half.
Rivera’s offense scored 18 points in the third, including three from behind the 3-point arc to cut Brownsville Veterans lead to 44-44 heading into the third.
Rangel’s free throw with 7:08 left in the fourth to give Rivera its first lead since the first quarter. Brownsville Veterans’ Erick Saldana followed that with two buckets to take the lead back, which Rivera countered with a three-pointer from Sam Drive to retake the lead with 4:15 left in the fourth.
Turnovers started to take their toll on Rivera’s offense after that, and foul trouble on the other end allowed Aaron Villarreal to sink a pair of free-throws for Brownsville Veterans to take the lead at 51-50 with 3:05 remaining on the clock.
Rivera’s offense would commit five more turnovers, which Brownsville Veterans used to go on a 12-2 scoring run to close the quarter and take the victory.
“We played great defense,” Rivera coach Saul Villarreal said. “Just a couple of turnovers here and there kind of made the game turnaround. We played great defense. We had a good scheme. Our game plan worked. Just a couple of turnovers kind of hurt us.”
Kevin Gomez finished with a game-high 15 points for the Chargers, and had four rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals. Saldana scored 12 and Villarreal had nine points, six assists and six steals.
“We came out strong but then we started slacking a little bit,” Gomez said. “We just have to keep pushing and we have to keep up the momentum. We can’t slack off or anything. We have to keep pushing and running down the court.”
Leading Rivera was Nico Blanco, who scored 12 points. Rangel scored 11 points.
The game was tight at the start, tied at 5-5, until Alex Marquez hit a fadeaway bucket and Gomez nailed a 3 to start a 12-2 run. Brownsville Veterans carried an 18-12 lead into the second quarter.
After Rivera’s Oscar Lozoya made a pair of free throws, Brownsville Veterans went on a 8-2 run to extend the lead to 10.
Brownsville Veterans had an eight point lead with just seconds left on the clock when Josh Arellano heaved a shot from deep in his offensive end and was fouled. Arellano made all three free-throws to cut the Chargers’ lead to five.
Four different Raiders scored in the third, with a putback from Rangel tying the game at 44 heading into the fourth.
Joshua McKinney writes for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @joshuabvherald.