By Spencer Spilman
The crosstown rivalry between the Hays Rebels and Lehman Lobos didn’t disappoint Tuesday at the Lobo Den.
The Rebels, who led by as much as 15 in the game, outlasted a furious Lobo rally behind a loud home crowd to earn a nail-biting 56-50 win.
The atmosphere was electric from the beginning as both fan bases were loud and into the game.
Hays jumped out to the early lead with Charles Bohannon and Dustin Bruno leading the offense.
Lehman stayed close as the Lobos’ Aaron Rodriguez knocked down shots from three point range.
Following a low scoring first quarter, both offensives picked up the pace in the second.
Lehman got a dunk from Kameron Edwards which fired up the crowd. Less than 30 seconds later, Bohannon stole a pass and threw down a two-handed dunk of his own to bring the Hays faithful on their feet.
The Rebels outscored the Lobos 14-10 in the second quarter to take a 28-16 lead into halftime.
The second half was filled with excitement from both sides, along with a plethora of fouls called from officials.
Hays, which finished the game with three players scoring in double-digits, led the Lobos by as much as 15 points in the second half.
Bohannon led Hays with a game high 19 points, while Hayden Hoekstra finished with 11 points to go with Bruno’s ten.
Hays coach Sam Lunz wasn’t thrilled with his team’s play after opening up a big lead.
“I thought we played a good first half and even into the fourth, but we struggled to make free-throws down the stretch,” Lunz said.
Lehman trailed 41-33 going into the fourth quarter before turning up the heat.
Rodriguez finished with 10 points, but it was Kimon Horne who caught fire in the fourth.
Horne knocked down several late threes and scored an old-fashioned three point play after a steal. He finished with a team-high 13 points.
The ‘x-factor’ for Lehman was Marcos Rivera, who came off the bench and gave the Lobos huge minutes. Rivera finished with eight points and eight rebounds, but a majority of those rebounds came on the offensive glass.
Lehman head coach Mike Whitten was extremely proud of his team, and especially the way Rivera worked during the fourth quarter.
“Marcos Rivera had a great game. He was fighting his tail off,” said Whitten. “It just shows the character of those kids and how hard they work every single day.”
The young Lobos battled back to cut Hays’ lead to four points with just less than a minute left in the game.
After an exciting comeback, with the crowd in the game, the Lobos missed some key free throws that kept them from completing the comeback.
