CL Hawks Finish 2nd in Marion Tourney
CL Hawks were able to finish 2nd Place in Marion’s Basketball Tournament this past weekend.
Canyon Lake beat Marion Bulldogs in getting to the Championship game with Wimberley, 52-41.
“From beginning to ending, this was our best night as you could see it with our energy and effort,” Head Basketball Coach Luke Chapman said. “That was one of our best offensive output as the ‘Bigs’ did a good job and all the guys are starting to trust each other.”
It is common practice for schools that host tournaments will always be sure to place teams they will be able to beat on their side of the bracket.
Marion looked at the teams and placed CL on their bracket for this weekend as the Hawks made them pay for that calculation.
The first quarter was tight but Canyon Lake got their separation in those two middle quarters by outscoring the Bulldogs, 26-11 and catapulting the Hawks for their 52-41 win.
Canyon Lake shot a salty 57% from the field and kept those pesky turnovers to a manageable 16 during this contest.
Rory Preiss led the team in scoring with 13 points and 9 of the 12 players in this game came away with an assist.
“We played good ‘D’ and transition game,” Preiss said. “When we see a press we panic and we have to remind ourselves into making good decisions.”
Preiss was talking on how Marion was able to get back to a 11 point defeat.
Canyon Lake’s largest lead came at the end of the 3rd period with a 39-25 lead.
That was when Marion started to press to get back into the game.
The Hawks used their field goal shooting to stave off another poor night from the free throw line making just 1 of 8 in this game.
CL continues to show a lot of depth as this team can rotate players without seeing a drop off and many times players from the bench will accentuate the game with this being ‘their’ night.
Little things are the key by having so many players making contributions you will not see any one player with a gaudy statistic line.
Joseph Boyd was another player that played an important roll in this win without showing those great stat line numbers.
“We moved better and not getting fouls kept me in the game,” Boyd recounts. “We had a good rebounding night and our passing helped in our finishing at the rim.”
Boyd did lead the Hawks with 7 rebounds as the team pulled in 36 boards and 29 of those came on the defensive side of the court.
That tells the casual fan on how CL Hawks were giving Marion just one shot at the rim per possession.
That word ‘team’ has a new meaning now as so many players are contributing and that is leading to 11 point wins.
Case and point is seeing, Brandon Ward being perfect from the floor hitting all 4 of his shots and all but two of those points came in that 4th quarter. Which proved to be critical in thwarting Marion’s comeback effort.
Gerrit Wilkins and Tyler Williams were chosen on the All-Tournament Team with their solid effort and hustle throughout the tourney.
1 2 3 4 Final CL Hawks (4-2) 13 10 16 13 52 Marion 14 4 7 16 41 3pt tot rebounds name fgm-fga fgm-fga ftm-fta pts or-dr tot a s b to Gerrit Wilkins 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 0-1 1 1 2 0 3 Brandon Ward 4-4 1-1 0-0 9 0-2 2 2 1 1 2 Justin Ferris 0-1 0-1 0-1 0 1-2 3 1 0 0 3 Rory Preiss 6-10 1-2 0-0 13 1-5 6 2 0 2 1 Heath McDonough 3-6 0-0 0-3 6 1-3 4 2 1 0 0 Sam Langford 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 1 0 0 2 Charlie McIntosh 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 1 0 0 0 1 Will Nance 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-3 3 0 0 0 1 Will Gray 1-4 0-2 0-0 2 0-2 2 2 1 0 1 Joseph Boyd 1-1 0-0 1-2 3 3-4 7 2 1 0 0 Tyler Williams 3-4 0-0 0-2 6 0-2 2 0 0 1 0 Jacob Ramirez 3-6 1-2 0-0 7 1-5 6 1 0 0 2 totals 24-42 3-10 1-8 52 7-29 36 14 6 4 16 percentage 57% 30% 13%