By MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
With first place on the line, the Pace Vikings matched the moment and opened the game with energy on both sides of the ball, and the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers never found an answer.
Fueled by hot shooting and a frustrating defense, the Vikings opened up a double-digit lead during the first half and never looked back as they defeated the Chargers 68-57 to take control of District 32-5A on Friday night at Pace.
Also Tuesday, the Brownsville Veterans girls stayed unbeaten in District 32-5A with a decisive 62-20 victory over Pace.
Pace never trailed in the boys game, leading 19-8 after the first quarter and 22-12 by the early second quarter, all while making life tough at and on the way to the rim for the Chargers.
“That’s what it means for us to come out down 20,” Pace coach Jose Luis Ramirez said. “It was going to take everything we had to play this kind of game. We have to play at our best, and the kids came out and they hustled. They hustled for every play — four quarters. I’m very proud of these boys.”
Pace’s Cristian Guajardo led the way with 20 points, Elias Fortaneli added 14 and Alexander Agado netted 13, though the real story was in the hustle stats.
The Vikings (6-0 in district) recorded four blocks, 12 steals and 13 offensive rebounds on the night, frustrating the Chargers (5-1 in district), who played catchup all night after falling behind 18-9 after the first and by as many as 16 during the second half.
The Chargers were plagued with early turnovers, giving the ball away 14 times in the first half alone.
“Pace wanted it worse than us,” Chargers coach Larry Gibson said. “They came out with the attitude like this was their house and nobody was going to come in here and take nothing from them. We didn’t come out with that fire and that energy, and we got too far behind. That just wore us out. You can’t say it any better, they wanted it more than we did.”
Early on, Pace moved the ball smoothly in the half-court and in transition, getting buckets from five different players, including five points from Agado and Fortaneli to lead the early charge.
After a Guajardo 3 put Pace up 28-17 with 3:33 left in the first half, a Kelly Davis 3 sparked a 9-0 run that was bookended with a Damian Maldonado 3 to make it 28-26 with 1:49 to go in the second.
That was the first real sign of life for the Chargers, but Pace’s defense tightened up and locked down the paint, helping spark a 7-1 run to end the half up 35-27.
The Chargers did go to the line for 17 free throws during the first half, but missed nine of them and shot just eight in the second half.
While the aggression was a bit much for Pace, it was the effort that stuck out for Ramirez.
“The whole thing was making sure we cut off those lanes,” Ramirez said. “(Brownsville Veterans) was going to the lane at-will in the first half, and we got into a bit of foul trouble. The guys were able to keep them out of the lanes (in the second half) and were able to secure those rebounds in the end.”
Leading by just six midway through the third, an Agado layup made it 39-31 and a Fortaneli 3 pushed the lead back to 11.
Moments later, Fortaneli sank another triple to cap another timely run, this one ending at 10-0 to all but shut the door on the Chargers.
“Every time we got a few stops and come back a little bit, (Pace) hits a couple of big shots,” Gibson said. “They have a hell of a ballclub. We gave them everything we had, but we didn’t play for the first five minutes. After that, we said, ‘OK, we have to play.’ We did the best we could, but we couldn’t get over that hump. Give credit where credit is due. They wanted it more than we did tonight.”
Maldonado helped get the lead down to nine in the fourth with eight points, but that was as close as the Chargers got.
Maldonado netted a game-high 25 points on the night and Davis followed with 17, but the Chargers got little production elsewhere.
In the girls game, Brownsville Veterans (25-5, 8-0) opened the game on a 26-2 run, led by 10 first-quarter points from Lizzie Garza, who scored a game-high 12 points.
“One of the things we want to emphasize right now is getting off to a good start,” Lady Chargers coach Arnold Torres Jr. said. “We’ve been inconsistent in some games as far as energy at the beginning of the game. The fact that we hit some shots early kind of motivated us defensively.”
Pace (12-15, 4-4) recorded just five field goals in the game and trailed 39-6 at the break.
In all, the Lady Chargers sank eight 3s on the night, with three coming from JuJu Alvarez.
Pace’s Priscilla Garcia led her team with nine points.