BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — After shaking off some first-half nerves, Sharyland Pioneer seemed more ready and more poised to reward its home fans with a playoff victory late in the fourth quarter.
However, with Sharyland Pioneer leading by three points, two critical Diamondback turnovers left the door open for Brownsville Pace to alter the outcome of the game. The Vikings obliged, scoring on consecutive possessions to stun the Diamondbacks 47-46 in a Class 5A bi-district round game on Monday night.
“I told the girls to relax,” Brownsville Pace coach Eddie Lozano said. “Every time we rush, everything goes bad, so when we relax, we play well. I’m very proud of them. They did a great job today.”
Both Diamondback turnovers came on out-of-bounds plays where the inbounds passes were intercepted by Vikings. Junior forward Sylvia Juarez scored a basket to pull the Vikings within a point with 18.2 seconds left. Senior guard Lexy Arce made the game-winning layup with 8.6 seconds to go in regulation.
The layup was Arce’s fourth made field goal of the night. She finished with 10 points.
“We’re not a team of one. We’re a team where everyone can score and we’re good all the way around,” Arce said. “We’ve practiced situation basketball and we’ve had a lot of tough games in our district (32-5A) where we’ve been pushed to this point. We beat our first place and second place teams in our district. Sometimes we’ve prevailed and sometimes we’ve fallen short. This is a time where all of our seniors knew that this could possibly be our last game. It was now or never. We gave it all we got.”
Monday night marked a first for Sharyland Pioneer. The Diamondbacks (24-14) won the District 31-5A championship in addition to playing and hosting a playoff game for the first time in school history.
“You could see our youth in the beginning, because the playoffs were so new to them,” Sharyland Pioneer coach Nicole Villarreal said. “It took them a while to get going and get comfortable. We’re losing two girls, but we’re bringing everybody back. This wasn’t our time, but next year is going to be different. There’s no doubt that the kids are going to put in the work that’s needed. This goes back to a conversation we had as a team when we were one game short of making the playoffs last year. This is not going to be repeated next year.”
One of Brownsville Pace’s top priorities was slowing down Diamondback sophomore guard Audry Hornaday. Hornaday was Pioneer’s leader in scoring (13.9), rebounding (10.6), assists (8.4) and steals (5.1) throughout district play.
Hornaday committed two fouls in the first quarter and didn’t score in the first half of Monday’s game.
“With a player like that, the only thing you can hope to do is contain her and let everyone else beat you,” Lozano said. “I think we did well, for the most part, but she’s a great talent. And that team is going to be great for a couple more years, at least.”
Sharyland Pioneer could have iced the game at the charity stripe, but the team made only 2 of 10 free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter. Still, the Diamondbacks had one last shot at a win.
Following Arce’s layup to put the Vikings ahead, Sharyland Pioneer’s tight defense forced Vikings senior Jennifer Oliveira to step on the far side baseline and turn the ball over with 2.7 seconds left.
But Pioneer junior wing Alexia Hernandez missed a 3-point attempt as the buzzer sounded.
“They put some extra pressure on Audry,” Villarreal said. “She had to work a little harder to get open, but for us, shots weren’t falling in the last minute or two.”
Brownsville Pace’s win capped off a dominant night for District 32-5A teams. Mercedes, Brownsville Veterans and Donna High all won first-round matchups Monday against District 31-5A teams.
“History proves it: a lot of our district teams hardly get out of the first round,” Lozano said. “I think the tides are changing. We’re putting in the work now. We think we’re starting to catch up to the Upper Valley.”
The Vikings (18-20) will face the winner of the Corpus Christi Veterans-Alice game, which will take place at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.