By Spencer Spilman
The Hays Lady Rebel basketball team finished the Hays CISD Tournament in third place in the gold bracket after a thrilling 54-53 win Saturday against the Killeen Shoemaker Lady Wolves.
The Lady Rebels started the tournament with a 54-51 win in overtime over College Station, which was then followed by a 55-29 win over San Marcos. Hays rounded out pool play by beating McNeil 48-32.
The three wins put Hays in the gold bracket in a matchup with Vandegrift and a chance to go to the championship game.
Vandegrift won the game 42-33 which put Hays in the third place game against Shoemaker.
The Lady Rebels got off to a fast start against Shoemaker as they jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter. The Lady Wolves got beaten trying to pressure the ball, which led to easy Hays buckets.
Choon-Hee Chae led Hays in the first half, knocking down multiple jumpers and easily getting into the paint.
After a Rebel 18-8 lead after one quarter, the Lady Wolves bounced back quickly in the second quarter. Shoemaker outscored the Lady Rebels 21-9 in the second, thanks to Shadazia Birchette and Kiara Johnson.
After falling behind 29-27, the Lady Rebels leaders stepped up in the second half.
Hays head coach Danny Preuss said the team stopped blocking out in the second quarter, but stepped it up in the second half.
With Chae running the point, it opened up easy baskets for Jada Finister inside the paint. Gabriela Bosquez assisted the effort by knocking down shots from the outside.
The two teams went back and forth the entire second half and neither team was able to pull away from the other.
Finister was battling in the post and by the end of the game finished with a double-double. She dominated on the boards and even stepped out to knock down a three-pointer. She finished the game with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
The full-court pressure from Shoemaker frustrated the Lady Rebels and forced some turnovers that led to easy baskets for the Lady Wolves, but Hays never let up.
Shoemaker took a 39-36 lead into the fourth quarter but Chae and Bosquez took over the game in the last quarter.
Bosquez hit a big three pointer and then drove to the basket and hit an and-one layup as the game neared the finish. She led all scorers with 16 points, and hit some clutch free throws at the end. Chae added 13 points and assisted on several big buckets.
Shoemaker tried to make a late run but the Lady Rebels held on and knocked down their free throws to hang on and get the third place win 54-53.
After going 4-1 for the tournament, Preuss said there is always room to improve.
“We’re not handling the pressure as well as we would like,” said Preuss. “We aren’t clicking on offense as well as we would like, but I’m proud of the way we played this weekend.”