By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
CORPUS CHRISTI — Pace trailed early, but took the momentum and the lead into halftime against Victoria East.
Unfortunately for the Vikings, it didn’t last.
Pace scored a robust 20 points during the second quarter, but matched that total in the entire second half. The Titans took advantage and hit nine 3s along the way to down Pace 70-52 in a Class 5A area playoff game Friday.
“I think they wore us down,” Pace coach Jose Luis Ramirez said. “In the third quarter, it was still close, but in the fourth quarter, we dropped off a bit. Their speed kind of got the best of us as we ran out of gas, but we couldn’t make the stops. They were getting the shots they wanted to get and that was the difference in the ballgame.”
Randy Aguilar led Pace with 11 points and Angel Munoz scored nine, all in the second quarter, and added four rebounds, a pair of assists and three steals for the Vikings.
Both teams showed their range early in the first quarter. Bryant Ennels hit a 3-pointer to open the game for Victoria East and Andres Salgado answered with a triple for Pace. The Titans were up 8-5 and scored five straight points to take a 13-5 advantage. Pace got a pair of buckets from Steven Garza and Mario Salinas to stop the streak. Vonjre Barefield hit a jumper to extend the lead to seven, but Luis Rodriguez nailed a 3 to cut the edge to 16-12.
Munoz sparked the Vikings in the second quarter, scoring the first four points of the period to pull Pace within two. After Ennels got a steal and a bucket to put the Titans up by four, Munoz scored the next five points for Pace, including a three-point play. Later, back-to-back buckets by Aguilar and Mario Salinas tied the game at 25. Lee Green and Michael Samudio answered with back-to-back treys for the Titans. Pace finished the half on a 7-0 push, wrapped up on a bucket by Salinas to take a 1-point lead and shifted momentum.
Pace started the second half strong with two straight buckets by Steven Garza, but Ennels sparked a 10-0 move for Victoria East with back-to-back 3’s for a 43-36 cushion in the third quarter. Pace kept battling as Luis Rodriguez and Alex Acosta hit 3-pointers to keep it close. But the Titans continued to hit their shots and the Vikings didn’t, and Victoria East led by seven heading into the final eight minutes of play.
“I thought we needed to play with a little more effort (in the second half),” Victoria East coach Peter Staackmann said. “We had better shot selection. Pace played hard, credit to them, they were blowing by us (in the first half), we’re usually pretty fast.”
The Titans started the fourth quarter with a 6-1 spurt that gave them a double-digit lead that wouldn’t be threatened again. In the end, Victoria East outscored Pace 39-20 after the break to end the Vikings’ season.
“We were getting good shots in the first half, but in the second half we were moving the ball, finding our options, taking and making good shots, taking care the ball a little bit better,” Staackmann said.
The Titans connected on nine attempts from beyond the arc, which was unexpected, Ramirez said.
“Their strength is their speed and getting to the basket, so we took the lesser of two evils, an open 3 or a layup,” he said. “I’m going to protect the layup and they hit the open 3s, there’s nothing you can do about that.”
Ennels led Victoria East with 20 points, including three 3-pointers, and Barefield and Green finished with 14 points apiece and combined for 11 rebounds and four steals.
Rodriguez finished with nine points on three 3s and Garza added eight points and four rebounds for the Vikings.
The Vikings return six players next season and hope to use this year’s playoff run as motivation.
“Last year, we went to the first round and this year was the second round, we got a taste of it and we want more,” Ramirez said. “I think that’s going to drive next year’s team to say we can get past that second round.”
“Ultimately, we played our butts off and I’m proud of my boys.”
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.