By Taylor Tompkins.
The Hays Rebels Boys Varsity Basketball team won their bracket in the Rebel Classic Tournament over the weekend in preparation for their first game in district play.
The Rebels won their first game Thursday against the Lanier Vikings 72-40 but lost their second game that day to the Harker Heights Knights, falling short 62-58.
Hays took the game Friday against the Dripping Springs Tigers with a score of 65-56 and their final game on Saturday against the Smithson Valley Rangers 68-52.
“The thing that I was most happy about and most proud of was that the team got better at some things that we needed to get better at before going into district,” said Coach Robert Lucero.
Hays senior Hayden Cagle slams home a dunk at the Rebel Classic, which Hays hosted from Dec. 12-14. Hays finished the tournament with a 3-1 mark, claiming the Silver Bracket championship. (Photo by Cyndy Slovak-Barton) |
Jacob Rodriguez led the team in scoring over the tournament, putting 39 points on the board between the game against Dripping Springs and Smithson Valley. Hayden Cagle scored 12 points in both the game against the Tigers Friday and Saturday’s victory over the Rangers.
Lucero said the level of play did not decrease when players who see less court time entered Saturday’s game.
“I was really especially proud of our guys who came off the bench and they don’t get necessarily as many minutes as they deserve because they work so hard every day,” Lucero said. “The level of play did not drop at all and so that gives us a chance to be really good when you have seven guys… on the bench that come in and give you significant minutes.”
The Rebels had a 27-point lead heading into the fourth quarter of Saturday’s win over Smithson Valley, due in large part to the pressure that led to turnovers, Lucero said.
The Rebels had an 8-point swing in the first minute of the second half.
“I think they came out (after half time) and they made the extra pass and kept the ball moving and they found guys with wide open shots,” Lucero said. “They moved (the ball) and found the extra man.”
Pressure on the opposing team was a deciding factor in Friday’s win over Dripping Springs as well, Lucero said.
Although the team’s rotation was slow and hurt the team in the first half, the Rebels managed to pressure the Tigers, he said.
“I think we tried to put pressure on them as much as we could because they wanted to control tempo,” Lucero said. “We wanted to try to make it difficult for them to run their sets. I think we did a very good job of that and we were able to get them out of their transitions.”
The team couldn’t dwell on Thursday’s loss to Harker Heights, Lucero said. The Rebels chose to see the positives of the loss rather than the negatives.
Lucero said communication in the tournament was key since the boys didn’t have practices in between games. Being able to go into the games without regular practice to address specific issues in the last game and communicating what needed to be done against opposing teams was crucial, he said.
“We lost last night and we don’t get to practice (before the game today), all that could be a negative, or we can say ‘ok but now we have another opportunity to do all the things we didn’t do last night and we are at home,’” Lucero said. “It’s always one of our goals to play well at home and so we try to focus on some of the positive rather than the negative that happened last night.”
Rebels will open season play against the Burnet Bulldogs Tuesday. The Rebels enter the game with a 10-6 overall record, while the Bulldogs sit at 5-4. The Rebels will play the 6-7 Lockhart Lions Friday Dec. 20.
“I would still like to be able to execute better in the half court (before district play begins) and continue to keep our level of competitiveness high in practice even as roles start to develop and people see where play time might be,” Lucero said.
