Key wins come after mass rescheduling

It was a chaotic week for the Wimberley Texan basketball team as a surge of COVID-19 cases among the teams in District 28 has thrown the entire district schedule into a loop.

After rescheduling the January 22 home game against Canyon Lake for January 30, another Friday district home game was in need of being rescheduled. The game versus the Fredericksburg Battlin’ Billies had to be canceled due to COVID-19 issues on the Fredericksburg team.

For Head Basketball Coach Mike Whitten, these extreme circumstances have been challenging, especially with the cancellation of the hyped Fredricksburg game before regrouping to prepare for a Saturday morning showdown with rival Canyon Lake.

“That was my big concern coming out to play early on a Saturday morning,” Whitten said. “Making sure we are awake, and we are at full speed early right off the bat when normally we are playing in the afternoon or early evening.”

“But I think it worked in our favor,” Whitten continued to say. “Number one our guys were really hungry for (Fredericksburg) and really built up for that. It’s neither here nor there but their head coach made some comments in their newspaper that were pretty derogatory towards our guys, and I think they (Wimberley) were looking forward to that. I think that fueled them in this game even.”

The comments referenced by Whitten were made by Fredericksburg Basketball Coach Tim Kaman follow the January 12 game. The comments were mainly critical of Wimberley’s physical style of play.

That hunger to play Fredericksburg only grew after the game was canceled on Friday and became the fuel to take on the Canyon Lake Hawks on Saturday.

From the opening tipoff, Wimberley jumped the Hawks and stormed out to a 13-2 lead. The Texans continued their offensive attack while the defense held the Canyon Lake offense down. At the end of the 1st quarter, Wimberley took a commanding 23-5 lead.

The Hawks offense woke up in the second quarter as Canyon Lake tried to stage a comeback. Though the Hawks offensive output increased, the Texans continued their offensive attack to keep Canyon Lake from staging their comeback. Heading into halftime, Wimberley was up 45-22 on the Hawks.

The start of the third quarter saw the Texans continue their offensive hot streak as Wimberley jumped out to a 54-30 lead. Heading into the fourth quarter, Wimberley led Canyon Lake 66-40.

The Texans cruised in the fourth quarter as scoring 25 points in the final period en route to a 91-52 win.

But Saturday wasn’t the only game for Wimberley last week as the Texans traveled on the road to Bandera Tuesday night to battle the Bulldogs in an important district battle.

Behind Senior Ethan Schleder’s 15 points and three other Texans players scoring in double figures, Wimberley knocked off the Bulldogs in a hard-fought 63-51 win.

With their two wins in district play, Wimberley improves their record to 11- 10 overall and currently sits in third place in the district standings with a 3-2 record.

As the team prepares for another week of district play in spite of the recent schedule changes, Whitten said this experience has been challenging for his players.

“I’m sure it’s been an emotional rollercoaster,” Whitten said. “You get all built up for this game and all of sudden it doesn’t happen. It’s kind of a letdown, and then you have to get yourself back up to play the next day.”

“I know it’s been tough on these guys, and we knew at the beginning of the year we had to be flexible and just adjust to some adversity… it’s not just something that is happening to us but it’s happening to everybody.”

This week’s schedule will see the Texans travel to Davenport to battle the Wolves before playing back-to-back homes on Friday and Saturday against Boerne and Fredericksburg.