By Spencer Spilman
The Hays High Lady Rebel basketball team opened up district play against the Lake Travis Lady Cavaliers in an exciting close game Tuesday. The Lady Rebels blew a 16-point halftime lead only to battle back to get the win against a tough Lake Travis team, 56-53.
Hays jumped out to an early lead in the game, thanks to a dominating effort on defense and in the rebounding department. Lady Rebels’ Jada Finister led the team with 13 rebounds, but the team as a whole owned the glass throughout the first half. Hays jumped out to a 17-6 first quarter lead behind the scoring of Choon-Hee Chae and Karlie Schroeder.
Finister gave credit to all the work the team has put in during practice to crash the boards.
“We’ve been working a lot on rebounding since we lost so much height from last season,” “We just focused on getting a body on them and staying aggressive,” said Finister.
The second quarter continued much like the first. Hays shut down the Lady Cavs offense and scored in transition, eventually taking a 31-15 lead going into halftime. Hays Coach Danny Preuss was proud of the way his team came out in the first half. “I felt we played a brilliant first half,” “We played almost flawless,” said Preuss.
However, Lake Travis came alive in the second half. Mandy Karako scored 17 of her 20 points in the second half to help bring the Lady Cavs back into the game. With help from Rayne Jones and Aspen Howie, Lake Travis pulled to within just six points going into the fourth quarter.
The final eight minutes was a nail-biter. The gym came alive and the noise was deafening at times from both sides. Lake Travis found a way to claw back an actually had a lead with just a few minutes remaining. In the final minutes though, Hays still found themselves down by three points with less than a minute to play. Freshman guard Gabriela Bosquez found herself wide-open at the top of the three-point line and she let it fly, and the ball found nothing but net to tie the game. Bosquez was way too calm and collected for being the only freshman on the varsity team. “It was a good pass from my teammate and I just wanted to put up a good shot,” she said.
With the game tied at 53, Schroeder came down with arguably the most important rebound of the game and she was then fouled with a chance to take the lead. The senior walked to the line and knocked down both free throws like they were nothing. “Yeah there’s pressure, and everyone gets nervous, but you just have to push through,” said Schroeder after the game.
The Lady Rebels certainly pushed through Tuesday night, as they held on to win 56-53. Coach Pruess could not have been more proud of his teams’ effort in the end. “We had an opportunity to quit there in the end, and we didn’t. We kept fighting,” said Pruess.
