By ROY HESS | The Brownsville Herald
The journey of a new basketball season began Tuesday for the Rivera Lady Raiders and Pace Lady Vikings.
The Lady Raiders broke out of a close game in the second half to start the season 1-0 thanks to a 48-40 non-district victory on Pace’s court. It was the season opener for the Lady Vikings as well.
The Pace girls defeated the Lady Raiders in a season opener for both squads a year ago at Rivera.
“Last year we didn’t get our first win of the season until about the seventh game (so this victory was nice),” Rivera coach Willie Brown said. “A year ago, he (Pace coach Eddie Lozano) had a senior ballclub and I have a senior ballclub this time. It just works like that sometimes.”
Rivera led 10-4 after the opening quarter and 23-22 at halftime. The Lady Raiders were up 38-32 going into the final period.
“I thought we didn’t play as well as we should have in the first half, but we knuckled down and played a lot better in the second half,” Brown said. “I told them at halftime, ‘You’re not playing up to your potential. We have a senior ballclub and you’re not playing like seniors.’ Then, in the second half, we played up to our capability.
“If we can continue to build on what we did tonight, it’s a positive,” Brown added. “Kudos to Pace and Coach Lozano. I was one of his coaches (when he played) at Hanna. He’s always going to have his team ready to go.”
The Lady Raiders were led by Jacqueline Montes with 16 points and Makayla Vazquez with 14 points. Susan Baez hit Rivera’s only 3-pointer and finished with seven points.
Besides Montes and Vazquez, Brown also praised the play of Roxana Rodriguez, Alondra Guzman and Alondra Guzman, particuarly on defense.
The Lady Vikings had 10 players score. Their top point producers were Lexy Arce and Sofia Espinoza, each with nine points. The Lady Vikings hit five 3-pointers in the game with Jenny Oliveira netting two of them to finish with six points.
Arce, Vivian Lucio and Sylvia Juarez each had a 3-pointer for the Lady Vikings. Lucio and Juarez each finished with three points. They were the next highest scorers for Pace after Arce, Espinoza and Oliveira.
“We’re real rusty,” Lozano said. “Offensively and defensively, we’re rusty. That’s what the tournaments are for that are coming up, so hopefully, we’ll work out that rust.
“We need to work offensively, but defense is where we need to work the most,” Lozano added. “We just need to work on talking (to each other more) and being where we’re supposed to be (on defense).”
Pace held its last lead of 30-29 with 3:05 left in the third period when Geaceli Orive sank the second of a pair of free throws. A basket on a drive by Montes with 2:37 to play in the third gave Rivera the lead for good, 31-30. By the end of the period, the Lady Raiders were ahead 38-32.
Rivera surged to its biggest leads of 12 points twice. The first time, Guzman scored from underneath to make it 46-34, and the second time, Vazquez scored from underneath as well to boost the lead to 48-36.
Pace’s Espinoza hit a shot at the buzzer to account for the final score of 48-40.