LOS FRESNOS — Brownsville Pace’s Ricky Tijerina needed to go the length of the court with his team down by one point in the final 4.9 seconds.
Tijerina dodged Falcons swiping at the ball and launched a deep 3-pointer as the time expired. The left-handed 3-pointer hit nothing but net to give the Vikings a 63-61 non-district win over the Los Fresnos Falcons Tuesday night.
“It felt nice, it felt perfect,” Tijerina said. “That was probably one of the best shots I could have ever taken.”
It looked like the Vikings would not need any magic with a 55-35 lead in the fourth quarter, but the Falcons have Jj Salazar.
The junior started going off in the fourth quarter, scoring 20 of his 32 points in the quarter, including a 3-pointer to tie the game at 60 and a free throw following a foul on a scramble to take the 61-60 lead.
“We had a kid that hit the game winning shot,” Brownsville Pace head coach Jose Ramirez said. “But, it was really a team effort. I certainly appreciate their effort tonight and we were rewarded with a win. It was a good team that we just played against, so it is definitely a big feather we get to wear on our hat.”
The Vikings controlled most of the game and dealt with the Falcons press well, except for the final two minutes.
The Falcons started applying more pressure in the third quarter, but the Vikings broke the press and finished at the rim. Brownsville Pace sophomore Ignacio Ramirez scored six of his 12 points in the quarter.
Tijerina finished second on the Vikings in scoring with 13 points. Ramirez was a point behind with 12 and Tyler Rudder had seven points.
“We play really good as a unit,” Ramirez said. “We had some kids do some things tonight, that I have not seen do things, they rose to the occasion.”
Brownsville Pace’s post James Quinones led the team in scoring with 19 points, all but two of the came in the first half. Quinones and the Vikings raced out to a 16-5 lead after the first quarter and went into halftime up 32-21.
Los Fresnos’ Luis Ramirez finished behind Salazar in scoring with 12 points and Gio Galvan had nine points for the Falcons.
Both teams will be in tournament action this week.