Friday, May 3, 2024
A bounce-back road win capped an eventful week of basketball for the Gatesville Hornets that culminated with the clinching of another playoff berth.
The freezing weather that blew through Central Texas forced the Hornets to endure three days of school cancellations and two game postponements before finally getting back on the court and suffering a near-miss double overtime 68-65 road loss to Waco Connally Feb. 2. The following night, they traveled to Salado and took down the Eagles 59-45 to wrap up a postseason spot for the second straight season.
“It’s huge first off to clinch – especially in this district. It’s like the Big 12 of high school in that you better show up and play every night. So clinching is huge,” GHS head coach Brit Campbell said. “And it’s a big deal for the program. We’ve gone back-to-back now in two different districts.”
Last season the Hornets clinched their playoff spot in District 6-4A with a win on the last day of the season. This season, they have three games remaining to improve their potential playoff seed.
The Hornets currently are in second place in the district standings with three games to play. Should they win out they would finish 8-2, as the district runners-up. In the event that they were to lose their remaining games and end up in a tie with Salado for the fourth and final spot, the Hornets would hold the tie-breaker by virtue of their two head-to-head wins over the Eagles.
Against Connally, the “Heart Stopper Hornets” were on full display. They led 12-11 after one quarter but eventually found themselves down 44-32 late in the third quarter before flipping the switch and almost pulled off their fourth come-from-behind win of district play.
Their run began with a three-point play from West Allman just before the end of the period that made it 44-35 in favor of the Cadets. Gatesville scored the first four points of the fourth to cut the deficit to 44-39 before a quick 5-2 run pushed the Cadet lead to 49-41 with four minutes to play. From there, the Hornets finished regulation on a 12-4 run to send the game to overtime.
After Connally’s Jylon Nobles made a pair of free throws to give Connally a 53-50 lead, the Hornets ran a play to get West Allman a look at a game-tying three pointer. Allman’s contested attempt bounced off the rim and appeared to be headed out-of-bounds but Rayshon Smith gathered the long rebound, set his feet, and buried a three-pointer from the right corner just before the buzzer to tie the game at 53-53 and send the game to overtime.
In the first overtime period, Gatesville scored the first five points and took a 58-53 lead but Connally charged back and sent the game to a second overtime tied at 60-60 thanks to a runner from Nobles in the closing seconds.
Gatesville took its last lead at 65-64 on a corner three from West Allman but that was quickly countered by another bucket for Nobles and a 66-65 Connally lead. The Hornets would not score again and the Cadets would hit a pair of free throws late for the final 68-65 win.
“We continue to show that we can show up and play with anybody. It gave our guys one more affirmation that that is true,” Campbell said.
Banner Allman led all scorers against Connally with 21 points and also pulled down seven rebounds. Tyler Shea had 18 points, 6 rebounds, and five assists. Smith finished with 9 points and seven rebounds.
Following such a tough loss, Campbell knew that the possibility of an emotional letdown against Salado – especially considering the Eagles fell victim to an historic comeback in the two teams’ first meeting. But that was quickly put to rest in the locker room at Connally.
“I had a good feeling after talking to them (after the game). It seemed like they were alert and ready and re-focused,” he said.
Campbell said his confidence grew during the school day and in the lead-up to tip-off at Salado.
“It was very relaxed – which I have come to find out with this group is a good thing. You could tell that they were ready and confident,” he said.
Salado led 15-13 after the first quarter thanks to 10 quick points from Noah Self. Gatesville stayed close thanks to seven first-quarter points from Carter Williams.
In the second quarter, the Hornets were sparked by West Allman on the offensive end and Trae Miller on the defensive side of the ball.
Allman scored all 10 of his points in the quarter while Miller guided a Hornet defense that allowed just four Salado points in the period. The Eagles were 0-for-8 from behind the three-point arc in the first half and made just 3 of 18 in the game. In their prior meeting, the Eagles made 11 of 25 from beyond the arc.
Campbell said that his players didn’t change anything schematically, they just changed their effort.
“I thought they would shoot more but part of it was that we did a better job defensively not letting them have those open looks,” he said. “We just kind of elevated the stuff we were doing and were more aggressive, and once we got going we just played with momentum.”
The momentum carried over into the third quarter as the Hornets extended their margin to as large as 52-28 late in the period. After a relatively quiet first half, the third quarter belonged to Shea and Banner Allman as the duo combined to score 21 points on 10-of-12 shooting in the frame.
Banner Allman led all scorers with 18 points and had five rebounds. Through seven games of district play, the senior guard leads District 23-4A in scoring at 19.7 points per game. Shea had 18 points while Carter Williams finished with 10 points, six rebounds, and four assists.
The Hornets hosted La Vega on Feb. 7, then were scheduled to welcome Robinson on Friday for senior night. Wins over the Pirates and Rockets would secure second place in the district standings – something that’s less of a concern to Campbell than continuing to improve.
“We kind of got into a little slump but we got ourselves out of it. There are still little things to improve on but I think we are in a really good place right now.”
