By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Los Fresnos trailed after three quarters against Pace, but Ariadna Gallardo stepped up.
The Lady Falcons freshman scored 11 of her game-high 14 points in the second half, including a 3-pointer to start an 11-0 run that sparked her team to a 49-40 win over the Lady Vikings on Friday at Pace.
“I just kept on shooting, kept playing,” Gallardo said of her second half output. “I got warmed up in the second half.”
Los Fresnos trailed 39-35 at the end of the third quarter. Under a minute into the fourth quarter, Gallardo hit a 3-pointer and then back-to-back buckets by Jovanna Adame gave the Lady Falcons a 42-39 lead. Los Fresnos (9-8) extended its lead with a pair of free throws by Britney Ruiz and a basket by Mereoni Rareba to rattle off 11 straight points and take a 46-39 advantage over Pace (6-9).
“(Gallardo) wasn’t feeling it in the first half, but we were maintaining with a few starters still in there,” Los Fresnos coach Kim Edquist said. “I knew she was going to be a spark. I knew she was going to light it up at some point.”
Pace’s Katie Quezada hit a free throw to end the Los Fresnos run and cut the deficit to six points. But unfortunately for the Lady Vikings, that was all they got in a cold shooting fourth quarter.
“When you miss 80 percent of layups, you’re going to lose a lot of ball games,” Pace coach Eddie Lozano said. “We kept attacking the basket, but they weren’t going in. Our 3-pointers kept us in the game, but our layups weren’t going in.”
Los Fresnos hit a trio of free throws down the stretch, including a pair from Gallardo to seal the road win for the Lady Falcons. Los Fresnos outscored Pace 14-1 in the final quarter to erase the 4-point deficit.
“I just told them to be a little more patient on offense and work harder on defense,” Edquist said to her team before the fourth quarter. “We had some players step up that don’t get a lot of playing time and gave the starting group a rest. They went out and did their job. It was very much a team effort (Friday).”
Los Fresnos took an early 14-11 lead in the opening quarter as Jessica Fuentes scored seven points.
Pace battled back to start the second quarter as Lexy Arce hit a free throw and a 3-pointer to give the Lady Vikings a 15-14 lead. Crystal Eureste hit a pair of free throws for a 6-0 run and a 17-14 edge. Less than a minute before the half, Los Fresnos’ Veronica Atkinson hit a shot beyond the arc to tie the game at 23. But Pace’s Nadia Mendoza hit three free throws to give the Lady Vikings a 26-25 lead at the break.
The teams went back and forth in the third quarter until Kaylynn Quezada hit a 3 to give Pace a 33-31 lead. Los Fresnos answered with a bucket by Morgan Waters to tie it back at 33. Later, Mendoza and Katie Quezada hit back-to-back treys to give the Lady Vikings a 39-33 advantage. Los Fresnos got a bucket from Gallardo to pull within four points at the end of the quarter before lighting the fire in the decisive final quarter.
Gallardo added a pair of rebounds and a pair of steals on her night. Ruiz finished with nine points; seven rebounds and a pair of assists and Fuentes added seven points, six rebounds and two assists for Los Fresnos.
Pace was led by Mendoza, who came off the bench and scored eight points, grabbed four rebounds and had three steals. Kaylynn Quezada finished with seven points and four rebounds and Katie Quezada and Rosa Salinas combined for six points and 16 rebounds and three steals for the Lady Vikings.
“It started on the defensive side. If we don’t stop them defensively, we’re not going to win ball games,” Lozano said. “We let them get too many putbacks and attacking the zone, which shouldn’t happen … we have to fix that before district starts.”
Los Fresnos was happy to pay back Pace for an earlier defeat this season.
“Pace beat us in a tournament and they’re legit, they’re a tough team,” Edquist said. “I told the girls to be ready for a tough game and they pushed us. I’m just glad we were able to push back.”
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.