After being down 30-13 at halftime, the Hays Lady Rebels (1-1) surged back in the second half of their home opener Monday to defeat the Bowie Bulldogs (1-1) 46-41.
“I mean, we came back from I think a 17 point deficit, and we won that game by five points,” Hays head coach Danny Preuss said. “Thats incredible. They fought, they were making big shots.”
Hays starting five included senior guards Gabby Bosquez, Chloe Aguirre and Lizzy Gibson, as well as two freshman forward in Lily Guevara and Trista Strasser.
After a quick 6-0 start, the Lady Rebels began to turn the ball over and struggled to get going offensively; Hays trailed 30-13 by halftime.
“I just told them, hey we aren’t running any offense,” said Preuss during halftime. “We are kind of just coming down and chunking the ball up,” Preuss said. “The defense wasn’t bad, we weren’t blocking out. But, offensively we weren’t running anything.”
Preuss said he “put a few things in at halftime” to try and get some open shots.
“But, really, the big part is they came out and battled that second half,” Preuss said.
Hays outscored Bowie in the second half 33-11, due in part to the Lady Rebels success defensively using a full court press.
“I was worried about pressing because I don’t have a lot of speed at certain times out there,” Preuss said. “But, I think that press rattled them (Bowie) a little bit and took them out of their game a little bit.”
The player of the night for Hays was Bosquez, who had 16 points, 7 rebounds, 5 steals and 2 assists on the night. Guevara and Strasser also contributed 9 points each. Guevara added four steals and two rebounds, while Strasser pulled down four rebounds in the game.
Lady Rebels freshman guard Madison Logan provided a spark off the bench for Hays in the second half, recording 9 points and 4 rebounds.
“Madison Logan hit three big threes,” said Preuss. “Gabby was making good free throws and hit a couple of pull up jumpers. My big six foot two freshman, she hit some big shots to start the game and got some rebounds. I mean they just battled everybody and did their part and played good.”
The Lady Rebels will be competing in the Dripping Springs Classic Tournament this upcoming weekend, including a first round matchup against Rouse (1-0).
“I think they are real fired up,” Preuss said. “We came off that loss the other day against one of the top teams in the state. I expect them (Cibolo Steele) to be in the state tournament. But, we came off that a little bit down, but this is just going to fire them back up. This is big right now, so we are going to try and key off this one and see if we can get a few more.”
