KERRY BARBOZA
Sports Editor
The Boerne High boys basketball team held an early lead against Medina Valley, fell behind, but caught the Panthers and then held on for the 55-52 win Tuesday at Greyhound Gym.
It wasn’t exactly how BHS coach Kimble McHone drew it up, but he’ll take the victory.
“We’ll take any win we can get right now,” he said. “We’re not young, but we’re inexperienced. We had two guys that played last year (on varsity), everybody else is from the JV team.”
The Hounds are 5-3 overall and play in the Corpus Christi tournament this weekend, and playing a lot of games is just what the doctor ordered.
“We just need games,” McHone said. “We’re going to go down and get five games in Corpus and try to gain some experience.”
In Tuesday’s game, Boerne was up early against the Panthers and held a 15-14 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Hounds really struggled in the second period.
BHS only mustered seven points in the period and only had one bucket, a 2-pointer from Jay Aldridge with 2:40 left until halftime. Their five other points came at the freethrow line. “We had 18 turnovers in the first half, that’s too many for a game, let alone a half,” McHone said. “We’ve got to cut down on turnovers. If we turn the ball over like that against teams in our league, we’ll get blown out.”
Because of the turnovers, the Greyhounds went into halftime trailing, 32-22, after they were outscored by the Panthers in the second quarter, 18-7.
But Boerne came out of the break and pieced together a 13-2 run to start the third quarter, and all 13 points came from Julien Hartman and Noa Sanchez, and the Greyhounds were back on top 35-34.
Sanchez went to the line four times during that spurt and completed two “And 1s” after he made the bucket, was fouled and sank the free-throw.
“Noah got into attack mode and got to the rim,” McHone said. “We were more aggressive. For some reason we came out on our heels to start the game and finally got aggressive.”
BHS outscored MV in the third, 15-10, and cut the lead to five points by the time the fourth quarter rolled around, 42-37.
A 9-4 run to begin the final stanza helped the Hounds tie the game, 46-46. The shot that tied it was a 3-pointer from Parker Ballenger with 4:20 left. It was Boerne’s only 3 of the game, something McHone said they need to fix.
“We’ve got to shoot better,” he said. “We only had that one 3 tonight.”
From there, Boerne outscored the Panthers down the stretch 9-6 and overcame a pair of 3s from Medina Valley’s Braxtyn Young, who knocked down six 3s in the game and finished with 22 points to lead all scorers.
The Hounds were clutch at the free-throw line as they went 5 for 5 in the final 2:21 of the game. Sanchez made all four of his foul shots, and Aldridge had the other.
“We didn’t shoot well overall (at the line), but when we had to have it, we made them,” McHone said. “That was good to see.”
After the last Sanchez free throw, there were still two ticks on the clock, and the Panthers launched a prayer that didn’t come close to going in and actually hit the ceiling.
“We did a good job of forcing a long shot,” McHone said.
Sanchez paced BHS with 19 points, Hartman added 14 points, Aldridge tallied 13 points, Ballenger chipped in with 4 points, Owen Graban made two free throws, Bo Pape hit a 2-pointer and Riley Pierce sank a free throw.
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