ROY HESS | Staff Writer
The Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers continue on an unbeaten journey through the District 32-5A boys basketball race.
The state-ranked Chargers turned it on in the fourth quarter to pull away and defeat the Pace Vikings 64-47 Tuesday at the Brownsville Veterans gym.
Brownsville Veterans, ranked No. 12 in the state in Class 5A by the TABC, improved to 24-3 overall and 6-0 in 32-5A with the win. The Chargers increased their winning streak to eight games. Brownsville Veterans last lost 55-42 to Weslaco High on Dec. 17 in the finals of a tournament in Pharr.
Pace, the defending 32-5A champion, slipped to 3-3 in district.
The two teams were tied 11-11 after one quarter Tuesday. The Chargers were up 28-23 at halftime and 39-33 going into the final period. They outscored the Vikings 25-14 during the last eight minutes to win by a 17-point margin.
“I think this is one of those intracity rivalries and both teams played hard,” Chargers coach Larry Gibson said. “Down the stretch we just had a little bit more than they did because it was a good game all the way through. It wasn’t a 17-point game (at all). It was more like a two- or three-point game all the way through.
“We’re staying the way we want to be,” Gibson added. “You can’t be any better than undefeated, and we’re undefeated (in 32-5A), so I’ll take that. We just have to keep playing hard, take them one at a time and just keep going.”
Aaron Villarreal, Kevin Gomez and Alex Marquez led Brownsville Veterans with 18, 13 and 12 points, respectively. Gomez hit a 3-pointer. Teammate Seth Weaver finished with eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Also, Justin Anaya finished with seven points, including a 3-pointer.
Randy Aguilar led the Vikings with 13 points and teammate Andres Salgado added 12. Aguilar hit three 3-pointers and Salgado had two. Also for Pace, Alex Acosta had eight points while Jose Salinas and Julio Ortega each added seven points. Salinas made two 3-pointers and Ortega hit one.
Brownsville Veterans held its biggest lead of 19 points twice in the last quarter.
A put-back from underneath on an offensive rebound by Marquez made it 55-36 with 4:51 left. Later, with 27.3 seconds remaining, Villarreal scored from underneath to put the Chargers up by 19 again, 64-45.
“We gave them everything we had,” Pace coach Jose Luis Ramirez said. “Once they had a six-point lead and they started to spread us out a little bit (as we tried to guard them), we had no choice but to switch our defense (to try to force a turnover). Veterans did a good job. They are bigger and they outrebounded us, but my guys gave everything they had. It was a 100 percent effort, and that’s all I ask of them win or lose. I’m so proud of my boys.”
Brownsville Veterans was coming off last Friday’s 81-31 victory against Donna High. Pace was coming off a 56-55 win against Lopez the same night.
District action continues Friday as Brownsville Veterans plays at Mercedes and Pace is at home against Porter.