Press defense lifts Texans to win

Wimberley Texans basketball team defeated an over-matched Nixon-Smiley team 69-20 last Tuesday night with a stifling defense that seldom allowed the visiting Mustangs past half court. To lessen the sting of a complete rout, Texan coach Mike Whitten mostly used substitute players in the second quarter and fourth quarters.

“With the score a bit out of hand, we backed off the press,” Whitten said. “But, we wanted to work hard in the half court to prepare for district play, so that’s what we focused on for the second half. Our guys did a good job at pressing the play and stealing the ball.”

The first period score of 21-5 pretty much set the pattern for the night. When the halftime score reached 44-11, Coach Whitten gave his bench more floor time while they worked on defensive strategies. “We’ve got to learn to run plays and to execute,” Whitten explained, “So, we keep stressing half-court defensive play. We’ll soon meet some really tough teams that will try to close us down. In high school there’s no shot clock, so if you play a good enough team, they’ll make you play half court.”

Top scorers for the Texans were Josh Limeley and Ethan Schleder, both with 13 points. The easy win over Nixon-Smiley upped this year’s Texan’s record to 8-2 with a streak of six wins in a row. The Texans next played Gonzales at home on Tuesday, December 11 with no chance for an update of scores. In this week’s action, the Texans will travel to the Navarro invitational tournament Thursday through Saturday, December 13-15.

Texan Round Up

Girl’s Basketball

Asked which players on his Wimberley girls basketball team have really improved, Coach Ted Dydalewicz immediately suggested “Carson Crowder scored 25 points in the recent tournament at Corpus Christi Tuloso Midway so she had a really good tournament. Mattie Martin also looked strong while scoring 26 in the same tournament.”

“Then, we brought up Brook Burcham, a freshman guard, who scored 20 points in her first three games at the varsity level. She’s been a really big surprise so we’re going to keep her up with the varsity. I’d also have to add McKenna Ward, a sophomore post player, who scored 18 points during our most recent tournament. She’s a guard who plays tough defense.”

Games played in the beginning of December included Weslaco East which beat Wimberley 32-47. Then Wimberley’s girls defeated Rockport 50-43 before losing to Tuloso 34-50 and Beeville 24-38. The Texan girls’ record now stands at six wins and 10 losses in a tough schedule that requiress playing mostly on the opponents’ courts.

In fact, the Lady Texans will continue playing their games away until Friday, January 11 when Fredericksburg comes to town for Wimberley’s second district contest. The experienced coach expects the tough schedule will harden and give them experience for the bulk of the district schedule that ends on February 5 but could continue into selection for regional competition.

JV Basketball

At the Texans’ freshman and JV tournaments held last Friday and Saturday, the Wimberley JV took second in their own tournament as they lost to Fredericksburg in the championship game. Unfortunately, the freshmen team from Navarro had to back out of the tournament because of conflict with other sports. So the Wimberley coaches divided their Frosh team into two nearly-equal Navy and the Red squads who then ended the day playing each other for third place.

“We wanted to give them equal playing time so we had another chance to give them time on the court,” Coach Whitten said. Both teams played well considering the level of talent on the other teams. “ I think if we had played only the best on one team, we could have won the tournament or at least had a chance to win it. But, I was happy the way it turned out because all of our kids got to play a bunch.”

Other teams in the tournament included St. Anthony, Fredericksburg, Marion, Bandera, Saint Stephens of Austin and New Braunfels. St. Stephens won the freshman championship while Fredericksburg took the title at the JV level.