Texans take a tournament victory

At last weekend’s Marion basketball tournament, the Wimberley Texans came away with the champion’s trophy. Against home team Marion, the fifth ranked 3A team in Texas at the beginning of the season, the Texans won 53-38. Wimberley also defeated Devine 54-50 and won over Somerset 61-52. Earlier, Wimberley also beat Gregory-Portland 71-53.

Counting the Marion tournament games, Wimberley’s record now stands at 6-2 with a streak of six wins in a row.

After the Marion tournament games, Texan sophomore guard Tommy Gardner was voted the consensus best all-around player of the tournament. “He’s one of our main ball handlers and does so much for the team,” coach Mike Whitten says. “He also does a great job in running the press defense and is our allaround floor manager.”

“Tommy was on the varsity squad last year as a freshman. In fact, we’ve had a sophomore high scorer in three of the last four games with each stepping up at different times. Other than Tommy, those sophomores include Devin Latz, Cole Schroeder, Ty Cabler and John Limeley.”

When forward Landon Kirchner wasn’t available for one recent tournament game due to a scholarship interview, juniors Jack Meismer and Colby Boyle stepped in and upped their games. “Because there is so much more to the game of basketball than scoring, Whitten explains, “both of these guys do so well with these intangibles of the game.”

With the early December games over and moving deeper into the season, the District seems to be shaping up as a possible three-team race with Wimberley, Fredericksburg and Boerne all sporting winning records. But Whitten quickly warns, “Canyon Lake always plays us tough because of our long-standing rivalry. With an upset or two, they could help to determine who advances beyond district-level competition.

An additional boost to Texan pride came when the Texan freshmen team took the consolation trophy at the Burnet tournament by beating Lake Travis, a 6A level team.

The next basketball action for the Wimberley boys’ teams will be at their own Freshman/Junior Varsity tournament scheduled for this Friday and Saturday, December 7-8. Then, on Tuesday, December 11 Gonzales comes to Wimberley with Freshmen and JV games set for 5:00 and the varsity game to start at 6:30.