Andrew Crum, Staff writer
Pace used its defense to its advantage to come back after a slow start against Valley View.
The Vikings trailed the Tigers after the first quarter, but outscored their opponents 19-4 in a crucial second quarter to gain the lead and never looked back in a 57-41 victory over Valley View in a Class 5A bi-district playoff game Tuesday at Pace.
“The first quarter is always tight because of those pregame jitters, first playoff game and a big crowd,” Pace coach Jose Luis Ramirez said. “In the second quarter, it looked like we got comfortable, we were able to move the ball, hit some shots and get some stops on defense.”
Steven Garza led the way offensively for Pace, he scored 23 points, including 10-of-15 first-half points in that second quarter. Randy Aguilar finished with 12 points, four rebounds and four steals, and Angel Munoz added 10 points, six rebounds and four steals for the Vikings.
Pace looked like it was headed for a long night in the first quarter. The period was back and forth, as Valley View’s Ricardo Gomez hit a 3 to put the Tigers up 7-4 early. Aguilar answered with a triple to tie it, but Gomez completed a four-point play on the next possession and Lou Gomez later added a three-point play to put Valley View up 14-9. Garza cut the deficit to two with three free throws, but Pace trailed 16-12 heading into the second quarter.
Garza took over in the second, helping the Vikings during a 14-2 move with a couple buckets to start the quarter for a 26-18 edge. After Valley View’s Erik Gonzalez got a bucket, Garza scored the next five points for Pace on a 3-pointer and a jump shot to give the Tigers a 31-20 advantage at the break.
“(Steven’s) the guy that leads us and he’s led us all year,” Ramirez said. “When the game is big and we’re struggling, he’s the guy that answers the call. He works hard at what he does. He makes things look a little easy sometimes, but I know they made him work.
“When he starts going, he gets that confidence … it’s hard to stop, but it’s fun to watch.”
Valley View had issues with turnovers, especially in the second quarter.
“Our leaders made some mistakes, but we weren’t able to recover from that,” Tigers head coach Robert Guerra said. “Our game plan was to not turn the ball over and our main ball handlers were turning the ball over. As a coach, I’m going to put the ball in their hands, and it just happened that they had turnovers.”
The Vikings kept up the defense in the second half and Garza had a bucket to push the cushion to 38-23 in the third quarter. Valley View got a bucket from Gomez to start a 7-0 spurt to close within eight. But Aguilar hit a 3 to push the lead back to double digits to end the third.
Pace started the fourth quarter with an 8-0 push fueled by back-to-back treys by Luis Rodriguez to grow its lead to 20. Garza added eight points after the break, as the Vikings were too much for Valley View.
Gomez led the Tigers with 12 points and Adam Solis scored six with three rebounds.
Guerra was proud of his team for continuing to play despite the deficit.
“My kids always fight. They’ve been taught to fight no matter how much time is left on the clock,” he said. “Our game plan worked, it was just our turnovers that killed us. Every time we turned over the ball, they were able to get into their pace. They love to run-and-gun and shoot layups. We just weren’t able to prevent that.”
Ramirez was happy to see his team’s defense continue its strong play despite the big lead in the second half.
“We stuck to (our defense), he said. “Our biggest thing is our attitude. We always have the mindset of down by 20. Let’s play every play, don’t give them any shots, even if we’re up. In our minds we have to play with that urgency and that’s what feeds our defense.”
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.