By ROY HESS | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Every basketball season has a starting point.
It all began for two Brownsville teams at the Rivera gym on Tuesday night as the Lady Raiders and Pace Lady Vikings played their regular-season opener.
Pace came out on the winning end 26-22.
The Lady Vikings jumped out to a 6-0 advantage and never trailed, although the Lady Raiders pulled to within one point twice in the final four-plus minutes only to see the Pace girls hold on for the victory.
“For us, the only thing that was good tonight was maybe our free throws (11 of 19),” Lady Vikings coach Eddie Lozano said. “That might have been the only good thing. Our defense was strong, but we definitely need to work on our shooting and our rebounding. I guess you could say our defense and free-throw shooting were our strong points tonight.”
Pace led 6-3 after one quarter and 17-9 at intermission. The Lady Vikings took a 20-16 advantage into the final period before the Lady Raiders attempted to rally.
Lady Raiders coach Willie Brown was disappointed with his team’s season debut.
“It’s the same as last year — sloppy play,” he said. “We weren’t focused and zeroed in. We do one thing in practice and in the ball game we play totally different.
“I guess it’s just nerves and jitters (to start the season),” Brown added. “We had some players in there to start the game who had no varsity experience. Then we played some who had experience from last year, but they weren’t in condition yet, so it’s just a tough pill to bite.
“We had 31 turnovers in the first half and you can’t win doing that.”
Kryssie Rivera and Lexy Arce led Pace with nine and seven points, respectively. Rivera made a pair of 3-pointers and Arce had one. Teammates Jenny Oliveira and Rosa Salinas added six and four points, respectively.
Mayra Martinez led Rivera with nine points, including a 3-pointer. Susan Baez added three points on a 3-pointer, while teammates Victoria Zuniga, Kaylyn Samano, Ashley Hinojosa, Desiree Perez and Roxana Rodriguez each contributed two points.
The Lady Raiders pulled to within 17-13 of the lead early in the third quarter and could have gone ahead during the next couple of minutes, but they missed five straight free throws before Kryssie Rivera converted a three-point play with 1:45 left in the third period to make it 20-13.
Martinez brought the Lady Raiders to within 21-20 by scoring in the lane on an inbounds play at the 4:10 mark of the final period. A jump shot from the side by Arce made it 23-20 for Pace before Rodriguez sank two free throws with 3:03 to go as the Lady Raiders came within one point for the final time at 23-22.
A free throw with 47 seconds remaining by Kryssie Rivera and a fast break layup by Oliveira with 32 seconds left enabled Pace to seal the 26-22 victory.
The season continues for both ballclubs on Thursday at the La Joya ISD Pack Tournament.