Thursday, April 25, 2024
The 23rd-ranked Gatesville Hornets boys basketball team suffered its first defeat in 29 days on Dec. 30, falling to eventual tournament champion Abilene Wylie 67-54 in their final game of the Texas Bank Holiday Classic in Brownwood.
The tournament champion was determined by two rounds of pool play. The Hornets won both games in the first round of pool play – defeating Dublin and Wall — and advanced to the championship pool along with Abilene Wylie and Little River Academy. Their 58-51 win over Academy coupled with Academy’s 54-45 loss to Wylie meant the Hornets finished second in the tournament.
Playing their fourth game in three days and third morning start, the Hornets ran out of steam against the depth of Wylie’s Class 5A Bulldogs.
“I thought fatigue was a factor but I thought all the teams showed fatigue,” said Gatesville head coach Brit Campbell. “Us coming off of a break with only one day of practice then playing four games as well also played a part as did the way Wylie played, rotating in a new five guys every so often.”
The Hornets trailed 17-15 after one quarter before the Bulldogs opened up a 10-point halftime lead at 40-30. In the third quarter the Hornets suffered their lowest-scoring quarter of the season and tallied just seven points to make their deficit 17 after three quarter.
Banner Allman scored 27 points in the loss while Tyler Shea was the only other Hornet in double figures with 10. Allman averaged 22.5 points per game in the tournament.
No coach likes to lose, but Brit Campbell acknowledged that there were takeaways from the loss that will benefit the Hornets with the start of district less than two weeks away.
“I learned that we need to refocus and get back to doing the little things correctly. We have had some really good games and wins lately, but a loss like this against a quality team gets us back to focus on ourselves to do better in preparation for big games coming up,” he said.
The Hornets opened the tournament by adding three more wins to their streak. They routed Dublin 94-53, defeated a very good Wall team 63-49, then beat the Bumblebees for the third time this season to run their record to 19-1.
Against Dublin the Hornets exploded over the middle two quarters, outscoring the Lions 58-26 during that span. They were led in scoring by West Allman’s career-high 26 points and Banner Allman’s 24-point, 10 rebound performance. Tyler Shea added 16 points, while Carter Williams had seven points, nine rebounds, and seven assists, and Trae Miller had 10 points, dished out eight assists and had five rebounds with just one turnover.
In the win over Wall – champions of its district in eight of the last nine seasons – the Hornets jumped out to a 13-0 lead. Banner Allman led with 19 points and 13 rebounds while Shea had 14 points and 12 rebounds. Carter Williams added 11 points and Miller had five steals.
The win over Academy was marked by two different tones. Facing each other for the third time in a month, the teams seemed moderately disinterested in playing each other again throughout the first half.
But the second was a different story. The Bees looked like a team that badly wanted to avenge their two earlier losses – the most recent without standout Colt Shackelford — and the Hornets responded like a team trying to keep a streak alive.
Banner Allman scored 16 first half points while Shackelford was held to two points as the Hornets led 27-23 at the break. In the second half, Shackelford got loose for 13 points but was countered by a terrific half from Shea who scored 13 points of his own.
The Hornets led just 52-48 with less than a minute to play before icing the game from the foul line down the stretch to win 58-51.
The Hornets hosted Australian travel team Diamond Valley on Jan. 2 and will then host former district foe Brownwood on Friday at 7:30 p.m.. They travel to Stephenville for a final non-district matchup on Jan. 10 before opening league play Jan. 13 against No. 19-ranked Connally.
