By RAUL GARCIA JR | The Mercedes Enterprise

BROWNSVILLE — The Tigers fell behind early after a botched shot that turned into a Vikings fast break.

At the other end the Vikings missed the uncontested lay up, but the Tigers missed a box out assignment that helped Pace grab the offensive rebound and then an uncontested three point shot by Alexander Agado that found nothing but the bottom of the net.

The Vikings took the early 3-0 lead and never let off of the breaks.

Tigers Junior Center Kemper Ledesma cut the lead with a turn around jump shot from the top of the key and to put the Tigers on the board 3-2.

But the Vikings would answer with a basket down low from Benny Villarreal to lift the Vikings to 5-2 lead.

On the next Tigers possession the Vikings managed to steal the ball and this time Elias Fortaneli finished for theVikings on the other end with a driving lay up off the glass to take a five point lead.

Tigers Junior Point Guard David Clower would cut the Vikings lead with a drive of his own as he blew by his defenders and finsihed on the left side with a contested lay up and drew the foul.

But the Vikings would score another four points at the line and in the paint to pull a way to an 11-4 lead in the first quarter.

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Clower would again slash to the basket and finish with a hand in his face to cut the lead to 11-6.

This time Villarreal added more points with a basket down low to keep the Tigers on their back and take a 13-6 lead.

Again for the Tigers, Clower scored this time on a jump stop shot to cut the lead to 13-8 with 2: 55 left in the first period of play.

Junior Guard Joaquin Gonzales block3d a Pace shot down low and passed to Clower who streaked to the mid court and started the offense. Tigers moved the ball between Clower, Gonzales and Joseph Rocha who then slashed to the hoop and drew the defense to him leaving Kemper Ledesma with an open jump shot that cut the Vikings lead to 13-10.

The momentum of the game seemed to be shifting to the Tigers, but another missed Tigers shot and failure to box out led to Pace putting another Agado three pointer in the books and a six point 16-10 lead.

Next, Rocha forced a Pace turnover that turned into a Clower fast break and another basket as the Tigers clawed their way to stay in the game 18-12.

With 6:12 minutes left in the second quarter the Vikings were building on a 25- 16 lead.

Pace’s Agado would go on to hit another three pointer to lift the Pace lead 30-19 in the in the second period of play and would go on into the break with 39-28 lead.

Rolling into the fourth period the score was 55-42 with 6:40 left in the game.

Gonzales slashed to the basket baseline and finished with a swooping reverse lay up that he flicked in with off the high glass to lift the Tigers to a 55-44 score.

Clower would follow up with a shot from downtown following a lay up scored by Rocha to bring the score to 66-52 with less than two minutes in the game. Gonzales scored once more as Clower converted on some one and one shots from the free throw line.

The Vikings held on to their lead and went on to win 77-56.

Next up for the Tigers is a home game on Friday with rival Edcouch – Elsa. Tip off for the boys contest is 7:30 p.m. at the Norris Gym located at Mercedes High School.