RIO GRANDE CITY — When the Rio Grande City Rattlers took the floor Friday night to face the Roma Gladiators in Round 2 of the Starr County Classic, they knew it would be a sprint to the finish.
That’s precisely how they played, as the Rattlers set a frenetic offensive pace from the opening tip and played lockdown interior defense as they sprinted toward the District 30-5A title.
Junior forward Emily Lopez led the charge by dropping a game-high 20 points and tallying seven rebounds, five steals and four blocks in one of the most complete individual performances across the Rio Grande Valley this season, as Rio Grande City defeated Roma 50-40 to capture the program’s first district championship in 35 years.
“We really wanted to win this one. We got here with all the excitement and hype. Ever since we found out that we could get a district championship, we’ve been fighting and fighting and going hard in practice,” Lopez said. “It paid off. It feels like a huge relief off our shoulders and it feels amazing to win.”
“We told the girls that I’m very proud of them. I’m so glad that they got the job done,” said Rio Grande City head coach Gus Valenciana, a Starr County native. “It’s been a while; it’s our first district title here in 35 years. For us, this will be our eighth playoff appearance, but we’ve never won a district championship, so it’s special. It kind of hit me after a little bit.”
The opening quarter between the Gladiators and Rattlers looked more like a track meet than a high-stakes basketball game between two playoff-bound teams.
Rio Grande City guards Melanie Lopez and Britzeida Sanchez kept their feet on the gas and pushed the tempo using their team speed and full-court lob passes to dice up Roma in transition offensively.
The Rattlers’ backcourt duo combined for 20 points and 10 assists and frequently intercepted passes that helped spark their team’s fastbreak attack.
The Gladiators responded by pushing the pace as well on offense led by the guard trio of Mareli Alfaro, Nailea Garza and Kelsy Treviño, but ran into trouble when it came to converting those breakaway opportunities in the paint.
“All we had to do was stop them on defense; that was our biggest goal,” Lopez said. “On offense, we just wanted to push it and fight until the buzzer rang. That’s what we did and it paid off.”
That’s where Lopez, RGC’s versatile forward, made her presence felt.
After taking a 26-18 lead into halftime, Lopez exploded to start the third quarter on both ends of the floor.
She swatted one layup attempt after another sending echoes throughout the gym and hauled down repeated offensive rebounds that gave the Rattlers the second-chance scoring opportunities they needed to break the game wide open.
“We came out of the half and played really well,” Valenciana said. “(Emily Lopez) came out on fire. She made some baskets, did a great job blocking shots and rebounding. She was just great.”
Roma made a fierce fourth-quarter charge to try to retake the lead to keep their district title hopes alive and made trip after trip to the free-throw line by initiating contact on drives to the basket.
In an ironic twist, though, Rio Grande City gained its biggest advantage of the night from the charity stripe by knocking down 15 of 18 (83.3%) free-throw attempts compared to the Gladiators’ 15-of-29 (51.7%) night from the line.
Treviño and Alfaro led the Gladiators in scoring with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
The victory moves the Rattlers, who are unbeaten against sub-6A competition, to 16-2 overall and 8-0 in district play this year, while Roma falls to 16-6 overall and 5-3 in District 30-5A with an opportunity to still clinch the district’s second playoff seed and home-court advantage in the bi-district round.
With two games remaining in district play at Mission Veterans on Tuesday and home against Laredo Martin on Friday, the Rattlers remain determined to finish strong and continue adding onto an already historic season in Rio Grande City.
“We didn’t even know if we were going to be able to have a season or if we were going to be able to finish the season,” Valenciana said. “We’ve had school employees pass away recently (due to COVID-19), so it’s a scary situation and at the same time I’m always preaching to the girls, ‘Protect yourselves, protect your families.’ … We stuck with it. They took care of themselves, stayed healthy and worked hard. During this pandemic, they overcame and that just makes it more special.”
“It feels amazing that we actually made history,” Lopez said. “I’m glad that we can make a lot of people proud and I’m glad that my team has a bunch of smiles on their faces and so do our fans and our coaches.”
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Twitter: @ByAndyMcCulloch
