By JOSHUA McKINNEY, Staff Writer
Pace entered the second and fourth quarters with leads, but 15 points during the fourth gave San Benito the edge in a tightly contested game.
The Lady Greyhounds earned a 42-37 victory Tuesday at Pace.
The Lady Vikings entered the fourth quarter with a 33-27 lead. San Benito’s offense started the quarter with a 7-2 run and tied the game at 34 with 5:30 play in the fourth with a 3-pointer by Mikayla Garcia. The Lady ’Hounds took the lead again on their next possession, but Pace tied it with a shot by Lexi Arce, who was fouled on the way up but missed the free throw.
Buckets by Garcia and Miranda Vallejo on back-to-back offensive possessions gave San Benito a 40-36 lead with 3:15 to go, a lead the Lady ’Hounds kept until the final buzzer.
San Benito’s defense held Pace to four points during the fourth quarter.
The Lady Greyhounds’ composure after falling behind made the difference in the ball game.
“We’ve had a lot of problems with turnovers in the last couple of games, but that was one of our main goals today, if we got behind and had turnovers we’d stop that,” San Benito coach Abel Moreno said. “And they did. They learned how to play in those situations and did a better job of handling that. I think it says a lot about them, and we’re growing. I’m happy about that.”
Pace’s coaching staff called for fouls while trailing by four in the final seconds of the game but the Lady Vikings didn’t move quick enough to foul San Benito’s ball handlers and get in the bonus.
Coach Kristy Metzmaker thought a lack of pressure on the ball after the lead was lost allowed the game to slip through the Lady Vikings’ fingers in the fourth.
“When you’re even or behind, you have to stay in their face because you have to get the ball back,” Metzmaker said. “When we got beat and the ball got by us, we didn’t drop to cover. There are a few things they have to work on, but they have gotten so much better.”
Garcia was San Benito’s leading scorer with 18 points. Alexis Cavazos had eight points, 10 rebounds and four steals.
Ebony Casanova led Pace with 11 points and five steals. Nadia Mendoza scored nine points, grabbed six rebounds and had five steals against San Benito.
Pace led 12-10 in the first quarter, jumping ahead with a 6-0 run. But San Benito’s defense closed down on the Lady Vikings, holding them to two points during the second quarter to take a 21-12 lead into halftime.
The Lady Vikings used steals to score nine points and cut the lead to 23-21 halfway through the third. A 7-0 run in the latter half of the third put Pace ahead.
A two-point shot by Mendoza gave Pace the lead again. Mendoza rebounded a missed shot on San Benito’s next possession and drove down the court, finding Casanova wide open at the three-point arc.
Casanova buried the shot to put Pace up 31-27.
Another San Benito turnover led to two more points, this time on a shot by Crystal Eureste, giving Pace a 33-27 lead that the Lady Vikings took to the end of the third.
The change in pace for the Lady Vikings threw San Benito off early in the second half, but the Lady Greyhounds’ ability to handle fourth-quarter pressure allowed them to settle down and come out with the win.
“We started slow, but we got ahead (in the second quarter) and I thought we were in a good place,” Moreno said. “They came out in the second half and changed the tempo. It made it hard for us. The girls are learning how to come back from adversity, and they’re doing that more and more.”
Joshua McKinney writes for the Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @joshuabvherald.