Staff Reports
For one half of play Tuesday night at Canyon the Rebels showed why they might become the first Hays boys basketball team in more than a decade to make the playoffs.
During the second half, the Cougars showed why they are ranked No. 18 in the state in Class 4A.
Canyon turned a 25-20 halftime deficit into a 52-40 win over Hays in a game that could have propelled the Rebels into second place in the District 27-4A standings.
With the loss, the Rebels are still in solid position to make the postseason with a 3-2 record in 27-4A play. Hays has key upcoming games, both at home, against Smithson Valley on Friday night and against Lehman next Tuesday night.
Against Canyon, Hays carved up the Cougars’ zone defense in the first half. When Canyon switched to man-to-man defense in the second half, it stuck a knife in the Rebels, who made only four field goals after the break.
In the first half, Hays trailed 10-7 before Jaren Rodriguez nailed a long 3-pointer from the right wing. Jacob Rodriguez followed with a coast-to-coast fast-break layup, and the teams were tied 12-12 after one quarter of play.
In the second quarter, Hays took charge as Stephen Ayala threw a sharp pass to Trey Johnson, who buried a 3-pointer, and Jaren Rodriguez followed with a steal. That led to Johnson’s driving layup that he managed to sneak through the basket despite the presence of Canyon’s much taller defenders, and Hays led 18-12 with just over six minutes to play until the break.
The Rebels continued to surge, as Hayden Cagle found Jaren Rodriguez with a pass he converted into a layup. Cagle then blocked a Canyon shot on the defensive end and Isaiah Williams assisted on a Steven Jass 3-pointer. Jacob Rodriguez’s fade-away 12-footer with 20 seconds left in the half helped give Hays a 25-20 lead heading into the locker room.
It was all Canyon after that, however, as Jarvis Poss buried a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give the Cougars a 27-26 lead. Levi Hidalgo followed with a fast-break layup and Sean Tollinger hit Ryan Morrow with a pass for a layup and Canyon led 34-27. Tollinger’s block and Ian Gulick’s 10-footer from the right baseline gave the Cougars a 40-27 lead with 40 seconds left in the third quarter and a 22-2 run stretching back to the end of the first half and the Rebels never got any closer than nine points the rest of the way.
