By STEFAN MODRICH | Staff Writer
LA FERIA — Monday night’s Class 5A bi-district playoff game between Brownsville Pace and Sharyland Pioneer was nominally a home game for the Vikings, and they certainly had the crowd behind them.
But the size and skill of the Diamondbacks inside the paint proved to be a mountain too steep to climb for the Vikings in a 61-53 loss — even for a team as determined and feisty as the one led by Pace coach Jose Luis Ramirez.
Junior AJ Anzaldua led all scorers with 24 points and returned to the floor after being helped off the court after diving for a loose ball during the third quarter. He was the catalyst of a second half in which the Vikings outscored the Diamondbacks 32-23 after trailing 38-21 at the half.
“Our whole thing is, there is no tomorrow,” Ramirez said. “This is today, we were playing for today. And for (Anzaldua), he’s been like that for years. He’s going to give you everything he has. Win, lose or draw, there’s not going to be any hangups. We’re (not) going to walk out of this gym going, ‘I could’ve, I would’ve, I should’ve.’ We just lost to a great team.”
After falling behind 11-2 in the first quarter, Pace responded with back-to-back 3-pointers, emblematic of its overall approach against a long and athletic Sharyland Pioneer frontcourt of junior Lavar Lindo — who led the Diamondbacks with 20 points — and senior Aaron Cuevas, who finished with 17 points.
Pace generated open looks by threading the needle through the aggressive Diamondbacks defense and launched away from behind the arc. The Vikings made nine 3s, two of which came from Abraham Rincon, and the rest from Anzaldua.
“I think we did that, for the most part, we just didn’t have enough fall in,” Ramirez said. “We’ve been shooting the ball pretty well up until today, you’re either on it or you’re not. We were on some of the time, we just had a few that rattled in and out, and if we would have had those, it would have been a different ballgame.”
Sharyland Pioneer coach Rene Gonzalez said the success of this year’s team is a byproduct of last year’s experience in district play.
“Last year, if we played in these types of games, we would have never won them,” Gonzalez said.
With starters Eddie Lee Marburger and Miguel Angel Gonzalez sidelined due to injury, Ethan Lee playing through a fractured foot he suffered last week and Miguel Ramos playing on what Gonzalez called a “bad ankle,” the Diamondbacks relied heavily on Lindo and Cuevas, whose emphatic dunks during the fourth quarter after the Vikings cut the lead to five twice stopped the runs from growing any further.
“All I received last week was bad news,” Gonzalez said. “But you know what? God is good, and God is faithful to the end.”
After postgame handshakes, Gonzalez led both teams, which huddled together at center court, for a prayer.
“Every time we’ve played them in a tournament, they do that,” Ramirez said. “It’s a very good thing for the kids, because we know that on the court we’re all here to beat each other, but we’re all brothers, all brothers in basketball and brothers in life.”
Sharyland Pioneer will face the winner of tonight’s game between Corpus Christi Calallen and Corpus Christi Miller, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Corpus Christi Miller.