BY MARK MOLINA | STAFF WRITER
While the Lopez Lobos brought aggression to the floor, the Pace Vikings defense set the tone and were in the driver’s seat the entire way.
The Vikings’ defense forced turnovers and their offense did the rest as Pace rolled to a 78-40 victory over Lopez, pushing their District 32-5A record to 5-0 on Friday night at Pace High School.
The Vikings pulled down 34 rebounds, recorded 15 steals and blocked four shots on the night, helping their offense get out on the fastbreak early and often.
“We tried to put as much pressure on the ball as we can,” said Pace head coach Jose Luis Ramirez. “I’m blessed with kids that are lengthy and who are aggressive defensively and that feed our offense. Tips and rebounds are big for us, but whenever we can get the other team out of what they wanted to do by pressuring, it helps us.
Lopez (1-4 32-5A) struggled underneath on both ends of the floor as Pace created second-chance opportunities pulling down eight offensive boards.
“We got killed on the boards in the first half and that really took our legs from us — we can’t give a team like (Pace) second- and third-chance opportunities,” Lopez head coach Neil Schuster. “We were struggling to get some shots here and there, but I still thought we missed some opportunities in the first half. We missed easy buckets early on and key free throws. It’s a good team we played tonight — we got out-hustled and out-muscled.”
Julio Ortega lead the Vikings with 24 points on the night, while Jose Luis Lozoya and Vicente Garcia added 13 and 11 points, respectively.
“It was pretty physical, we played tough D, they played tough D,” Ortega said. “We got points off (Lopez’s) press. We run the fastbreak really well and our defense gets steals— that’s the key to our success and we have to keep on going for the rest of the season.”
Both teams looked slow to open the first quarter, missing high-percentage shots.
Lopez led 4-3 early, but trailed 17-8 after eight minutes thanks to an eight-point quarter from Pace’s Hiram Flores, who hit a pair of three-point shots in the first quarter.
The Vikings opened the second quarter on an 8-0 run fueled by seven points from Ortega, who capped the run with a three-point play after drawing the foul on a layup.
A JJ Briones trey ended the run and made it 25-11 with 5:46 to go in the second quarter.
Lopez’s Aramando Pecero had nine points in the final minutes of the first half, but the rest of the team managed just one point as Pace led 36-21 at the half.
The game got physical in a long third quarter that had hard fouls and even a play stoppage to sort out a scuffle that resulted in an ejection.
Pace led 53-32 after three and started the fourth on a 14-0 run, with Ortega once again at the forefront with eight points in the run.
“Lopez came to play tonight and gave us a game for as long as they could, but it looks like they ran out of gas and we picked up steam from there,” Ramirez said. “The game was a lot closer than what it looks like.”
Lopez trailed by as many as 38 points in the fourth.
Pecero finished the night with 13 points to lead the Lobos, while Briones and Hiram Matoviche added 10 apiece.