SAN ANTONIO — Last Friday’s game between Boerne Champion and Alamo Heights turned into a game of spurts as each team would go on a run before the other answered.
It was Champion’s run late in the fourth quarter that tilted the final momentum swing their way as they scored 5 points in the final 15 seconds of the game to secure a 40-36 win over Alamo Heights.
Champion improved to 31-5 overall and faced Wagner Tuesday in the third round.
Chargers coach Chris Adamek said since they were playing the Mules, he expected a lot of back and forth in the game.
“We knew this was going to happen in a rivalry game and we just had to settle ourselves down,” he said.
After Alamo Heights jumped out to a 4-0 lead to start, the Chargers went on a 15-5 run to end the first quarter and held a 15-9 advantage.
A 10-4 spurt to start the second helped Champion open up a double-digit advantage at 25-13, but the Mules closed out the first half with 8 unanswered points and the Chargers lead was down to four at halftime, 25-21.
Once the third quarter started, the Mules continued to stay hot and tallied the first 7 points of the period to make it a 15-0 run to bridge the second and third quarters and Alamo Heights was leading, 28-25 with 3:40 left in the third.
“They hit us hard late second and into the third,” Adamek said. “We had a moment there when we were down and had a heart to heart and talked about how this is our time.”
Champion responded with a 5-0 spurt to end the third after Charlie Georgelos scored a 2-pointer and Briggs Jones hit a 3 and the Chargers held a 30-28 advantage going into the final stanza.
Champion scored the first 5 points of the fourth to make it a 10-0 run and the lead was 7 at 35-28, but the Mules responded with a run of their own.
Alamo Heights tallied the next 8 points and jumped back on top, 36-35 with 40 seconds left.
But there was one more run to be had and it belonged to the Chargers. With 15 ticks on the clock, Quinn Grable hit the biggest shot of the game after he drained a 3-pointer to give Champion a 38-36 edge.
The Mules had a chance to answer and had the ball but their player started to shoot, left the ground and landed with the ball, drawing a traveling violation to give the possession back to Champion.
Georgelos was fouled on the inbounds pass and calmly sank both free throws with 6.4 seconds left to complete the 5-0 run and secure the 40-36 victory.
Georgelos led Champion with 12 points and had 7 in the second half, including 5 in the fourth.
“What he does, sometimes you don’t see all of it until you watch film. I think he’s the greatest all-around player in Champion history,” Adamek said about Georgelos. “He checks all the boxes and the most humble guy to boot.”
Grable finished with 5 points and all 5 came in the crucial fourth quarter, Jones netted 11, Baeden Burdick scored 9 and Mason Wyatt hit an early 3 to tally 3 points.
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