ROMA — The Rio Grande City Rattlers and Roma Gladiators met Tuesday night for the first leg of the Starr County Classic rivalry series with more on the line than ever before.
In a matchup that pitted a veteran Gladiators backcourt led by senior Kelsey Treviño and a fierce Rattlers frontcourt headlined by junior Emily Lopez, the RGC and Roma girls basketball squads put their unbeaten district records on the line and battled for first place in their district for the first time in the history of one of the RGV’s richest basketball rivalries.
But in a fierce back-and-forth game, it was Rattlers forward Claudette Rodriguez who stole the show in her first game of the season.
After being medically cleared to make her season debut less than 24 hours before tipoff, Rodriguez scored a team-high 17 points on 60% shooting to lead Rio Grande City to its biggest win of the season in a 52-39 road victory over Roma.
“(Rodriguez) just got cleared (Monday) and she did a great job for us,” said Rio Grande City head coach Gustavo Valenciana, a Roma native. “If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know if we would have won this game. We were struggling until she checked into the game. Then she hit layups, made free throws, handled the ball well, got rebounds and played defense.”
The clash between the top two teams in District 30-5A started off with the intensity of an early-round playoff matchup.
The Gladiators and Rattlers exchanged blow for blow in a fierce first half that featured eight lead changes with neither team grasping more than a five-point lead.
Roma’s stifling full-court press forced several turnovers and helped the Gladiators capitalize in transition where Treviño and fellow guard Natalie Garza thrived in leading their team’s up-tempo offensive attack.
“(Roma) would make runs, catch back up and then we’d take the lead back,” Valenciana said of his team’s first-half performance against the Gladiators’ press. “I thought they were going to overtake us, so I’m very proud of our kids for hanging in there like that. They could’ve folded, but they didn’t. We played hard tonight and I’m proud of that.”
“I told the girls, against pressing teams especially, it’s never going to be easy. They’re going to makes runs,” he added. “I like that our kids were very efficient in the halfcourt and we were very patient.”
Treviño was the Gladiators’ offensive dynamo in the halfcourt as well, leading her team with 17 points on a 3-of-3 night from deep.
That kept the Gladiators in the game heading into halftime and helped them keep it close deep into the second half, as Roma entered the fourth quarter trailing 33-30.
That’s when the Rattlers’ frontcourt trio of Rodriguez, Lopez and Angela Razo came alive.
Lopez served as Rio Grande City’s lynchpin in the interior defensively and she dominated on the low block all night, tallying an 11-point, 13-rebound double-double to accompany a game-high five blocks.
Together, the Rattlers’ frontcourt trio combined for 27 rebounds, which gave RGC an insurmountable edge in the battle on the boards (37-28) and held Roma to a 22% shooting night from the field.
“Credit to Emily, she was our anchor down there. She was rebounding, she was blocking a lot of shots and played good defense,” Valenciana said. “There at the end, she came alive and was really active. … Here in the fourth quarter when it mattered, we played great.”
Guards Britzeida Sanchez and Melanie Lopez, The Monitor’s 2019-20 Girls Basketball Co-Newcomer of the Year, also played integral roles in breaking through Roma’s suffocating full-court press during the second half and slowing down the Gladiators fastbreak attack, both of which helped the Rattlers preserve their lead for the entirety of the second half.
Sanchez and Lopez combined for 13 points, six assists and five steals as the Rattlers shot 55% from the floor to earn their second big road win in the first round of district play in 30-5A.
The victory moves the Rattlers to 2-0 in district play and drops the Gladiators to 2-1.
“It’s a huge win. I was telling the kids if we win this game, we set ourselves up really nicely to finish up that first round of district play (in first),” Valenciana said. “We’ve still got a lot of games to go, though, and Roma and (Laredo) Cigarroa will be tough when they come to our place, Laredo Martin too.”
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