By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
LOS FRESNOS — Los Fresnos came out aggressively on defense and that was too much for Pace.
The Lady Falcons totaled 27 steals, including nine by Jovanna Adame, and Ari Gallardo scored 21 points as they defeated the Lady Vikings 66-36 in a non-district girls basketball game Friday.
“I need to be the leader, but I like it,” Adame said. “We came back strong in the second half and showed what we could do.”
Adame finished with 11 points, four rebounds, three assists and a game-high nine steals for Los Fresnos.
Los Fresnos led 32-19 at the break, but used a surge after halftime to run away from Pace. The Lady Falcons used their pressure on defense to get points off turnovers and in transition.
Using a 10-0 run to start the third quarter, including five points from Gallardo on a 3 and a pair of free throws, Los Fresnos extended its lead to 42-19. The Lady Vikings got a layup by Lexy Arce to stop the run. The Lady Falcons finished the quarter on an 8-3 run and led 51-24 after three.
“I preach in practice about effort and defense to me is all effort and I think our girls hear that day in and day out,” Los Fresnos coach Rebecca Valdez said. “We’ve had a trend where we don’t play that well in the first half. But for some reason, the third quarter is our quarter … after halftime we seem to have this extra fire in us.”
Los Fresnos started the final quarter on a 5-0 run and Arce stop the run with a free throw, but the Lady Falcons continued to use their defense and the teams traded baskets down the stretch. Los Fresnos’ pressure forced Pace into several turnovers over the course of the night and allowed it to coast to a victory.
“Right now we’re still trying to find our identity,” Pace coach Eddie Lozano said. “It’s been a journey so far … but that’s probably the best basketball we’ve played all season. Offensively we turned the ball over way too much … that’s been our Achilles heel.”
Gallardo scored 15 of her 21 points — including three 3-pointers — in the second half and added four rebounds, four assists and six steals for the Lady Falcons.
“Ari is a good shooter and she’s become a good defender with her long arms,” Valdez said. “She’s a good kid. She works really hard, she puts in the work to be good.”
The first half was a much tighter game. After Arce hit a jumper, Pace took a 4-2 lead in the opening quarter. Britney Ruiz hit a pair of free throws and then a jumper by Dominque Clemons gave Los Fresnos a 10-6 lead. Later, Ruiz added a bucket at the buzzer to push the lead to 16-7 as she scored all 10 of her points in the first.
The Lady Falcons started the second quarter on a 6-0 run to push the lead to 22-7 before a layup by the Lady Vikings’ Rosa Salinas. Adame hit a jumper to extend the edge to 28-11, but Pace’s Viv Lucio answered with a 3-pointer to make it 28-14. Later, a 3 by Coran Garcia pushed the Los Fresnos advantage to 32-18 with under a minute to play before halftime.
Salinas finished with a team-high 12 points and seven steals and Arce added nine points, seven rebounds and four steals for Pace.
The Lady Vikings finished with 18 steals on the night, but turnovers were costly.
“I like our defensive speed … we had more steals than we’ve had (all season),” Lozano said. “We’re still trying to find our identity, so hopefully this helps us moving on.”
The Lady Falcons got contributions from every player on the floor.
“I’ve been pushing the aspect of team, we can’t do it alone,” Valdez said. “Everyone has to do their job and contribute and (Friday) everybody did … overall we played together as a whole pretty well.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.