Viking PG Garza shakes off ankle sprain

Vikings Garza ready

Senior Ruben Garza is arguably the best player on the Pace Vikings (12-7,0-1) roster, so any fan who saw him go down in the third quarter with an ankle injury against Hanna might have a cause for concern.

But according to coach Larry Gibson the Viking faithful can breathe a sigh of relief because Garza hasn’t missed a practice and is ready to go for today’s game at Los Fresnos.

“He’s fine,” Gibson said. "He’s had that injury all year long and if the game (against Hanna) was closer he would have gone back.”

The Vikings have been one of the better teams from District 32-5A this season and Gibson said he wants his team to get back to the form they’ve had for most of the year.

“We know are backs are against the wall,” Gibson said. “And all I’m looking for us to play good, just liked we’ve played our last 13 or 14 games.”

One at a time

The Eagles (14-4, 1-0) couldn’t have had a better start to district play after beating cross-town rival Pace at home 87-49.

Yet, it’s still just one game and coach Don Denson isn’t looking much further ahead than Rivera, espe-cially after the Raiders knocked off defending 32-5A champ Weslaco 57-49 on Saturday.

“Each game is very important and Rivera beat Weslaco,” Denson said. “Rivera is a fine ball club and we look forward to going to their gym and playing good basketball.”

Raider PG stepping up

The Rivera Raiders didn’t get off to the best start at 7-10 but they are 1-0 in district where it counts, which could be due enlarge part to senior point guard Adam Vera.

Vera, who has contributed to the team from the bench most of the season was inserted into the starting lineup just before the holiday break by coach Saul Villarreal who said Vera’s growth over the year has earned him the spot in the starting five.

“He was making plays off the bench,” Villarreal said. “But he’s matured a lot and stepped in for us. As far as making decisions he’s not as erratic (anymore) and is calm, passing (better) and taking high per-centage shots.“

Vera and the rest of the Raiders are going to have to be on their best tonight as they host the mighty Hanna Golden Eagles who seem to be the likely front-runner for the District 32-5A title.

Greyhounds no show?

San Benito coach Roy Garcia thought that by now his team would be playing better and said if the group doesn’t start putting it together it won’t be able to make a postseason appearance like last’ year’s historic one.

“It’s already the second game of district and the kids need to start showing up [to play],”Garcia said. “Or else we’re going to be left out (of the playoffs).”

Despite having a respectable record at 11-6, 0-1 overall, the one district loss hurts more than all the others especially since Garica wasn’t expecting it.

“(The) surprise is we’re not playing as I thought we would be playing right now,” Garcia said.

Falcons defense key

Coach Shawn Jones’ Los Fresnos Falcons has played solid defense, yet the offensive side of the ball is a big question, which has turned out to not be such a bad thing.

“Every night it’s somebody else,” Jones said. “We just don’t have that one person, so every night its’ a surprise for us.”

Through one district game Jones said his recipe for victory would be served by the defense, especially with the parity in the district.

“We’re young and if we continue to defend we’ll be in games,” Jones said. “Our district is unbelievably balanced and I talked to our kids and told them its got to be on game at a time and just to keep battling every night.”