By ROY HESS
Staff Writer
For its first year of having a format change, the annual Brownsville ISD Boys Basketball Tournament enjoyed quite a fantastic finish.
This year, bracket play was scrapped and the three-day tournament became a round-robin event for the six participating Brownsville ISD teams with each squad playing the other. The team with the best record was the winner. All games except one on Thursday were played at Brownsville Veterans Memorial.
Saturday’s last game on the round-robin schedule matched the two teams that had 4-0 records during round-robin play. They were Pace and Brownsville Veterans.
The Vikings were the ones to emerge from the tournament undefeated thanks to a 69-66 victory over the Chargers.
It wasn’t easy.
Pace, now 5-1 on the young season, led by 17 points, 40-23, at halftime before seeing the score tied at 47 by the end of the third quarter. Then the Vikings fell behind by as many as eight points twice (58-50 and 60-52) during a frantic fourth period.
It was one to remember for Pace coach Jose Luis Ramirez.
“This was an instant classic to me,” said Ramirez, whose team is the defending champion in District 32-5A. “Every time we play Veterans it’s going to be a classic. We’ve had our battles, Coach (Larry) Gibson and I. It’s a great program that they run, and he’s a great coach.
“To come in here (and play the Chargers), we knew we would have our hands full,” Ramirez added. “You could see the excitement in the fans and the players. It went both ways. In the end, somebody had to win, and we feel blessed and lucky that it was us this time.”
Pace was up 18-11 at the end of the first period and led 40-23 at the half as the Vikings came alive near the end of the second quarter to make four 3-pointers in a row and turn a 25-21 lead into 37-21. It soon became 40-23 at the half.
Brownsville Veterans scored the first 15 points of the third quarter to pull to within 40-38 after Justin Anaya’s fastbreak layup with 3:57 showing in the period.
The Chargers went ahead for the first time, 45-44, when Damian Maldonado hit an inside turnaround jumper with 1:23 left in the third quarter.
Following a deadlock at 47 to enter the final quarter, the Chargers gradually gained momentum and went ahead by as many as eight points twice, 58-50 on a Maldonado free throw, and 60-52 on a jump shot from the side by Kelly Davis.
But the Vikings were determined to win.
Pace’s A.J. Anzaldua gave his team the lead for good, 67-65, by making his third 3-pointer of the fourth quarter with 28.2 seconds left to play. A free throw by the Chargers’ Robby Fisher with 15.9 seconds remaining cut the lead to 67-66.
Anzaldua was intentionally fouled with 8.2 seconds to go, and he sank both free throws to make it 69-66.
“It was a game of runs,” Gibson said. “We were down 17 points at the half, and we had to really fight to come back and take an eight-point lead. I think we just wore out. Our legs just didn’t have anything left (at the end). It was our fifth game in three days. Pace just had more (energy) left than what we had.
“If we could have put together one more run, maybe we could have done it (and won), but we just didn’t have the legs to do it,” Gibson added. “Pace made some great shots. Anzaldua had a great tournament for them.”
Anzaldua was named the tournament MVP. Against Brownsville Veterans, he scored 32 points, including seven 3-pointers, with three coming in the last period to spark the victory.
Other Vikings named to the all-tournament team were Jose L. Lozoya and Elias Fortanelli.
Brownsville Veterans players named all-tournament were Maldonado, Fisher and Matt Maddox.
Besides Anzaldua’s 32 points, the only other double-figure scorer for Pace against the Chargers was Cristian Guajardo, who finished with 12 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Fortanelli also had two 3-pointers in the game and finished with six points.
The 6-2 Chargers, who went 4-1 in the tournament, almost had five players score in double figures against Pace. Their top four scorers were Fisher (15 points), Anaya (13), Maldonado (13) and Maddox (10). Kelly Davis added nine points.
Earlier in the day in round-robin action, Brownsville Veterans defeated Hanna 54-34 and Pace beat Porter 56-37. Other scores from Saturday were Lopez over Rivera 49-46, Hanna over Rivera 49-47 and Porter over Lopez 51-28.