Hawks Find ‘IT’ in Win over Boerne, 63-56
Heath McDonough driving to basket in win over Boerne (photo by Karen Holmes)
Canyon Lake finds ‘It’ in win over Boerne, 63-56 at the Hawk Nest, as this game finished the first round of District 28-4A contests. CL stands all alone in 2nd place and now will work on bigger goals as this season continues.
“That was awesome,” Head Coach Lucas Chapman started. “I am proud of the guys…our team executed and competed for the majority of the game and that was the most emotion this year.”
Coach Chapman studied hard for this game and the fruits of that labor tasted good.
“Boerne was constantly playing catch-up and we really prepared for it as the kids were locked in,” Chapman said excitedly. “They executed the scouting report….especially on defense.”
Repeat-Boutique say Repeat Wins and Go Hawks!
The Hawks have not been a stellar program and finding that ‘it’ factor during a season has been a lost cause. That simply means there have not been a lot of signature wins (if any) during the existence of playing round ball.
CL found ‘it’ during this game as there were many times ‘it’ could have left the gym, like ‘it’ has done on so many other game nights.
‘It’ comes in many shapes and forms in the context of a game as teams work on fixing ‘it’, but for many years having no success in accomplishing those goals.
Speaking of bigger goals, the Hawks shot a decent 46% from the field helping in the win as some free throw shooting could have saved a lot of finger nails in the stands.
On other nights, ‘it’ would have been lost with those missed free throws.
Canyon Lake found ‘it’ during the game as the Hawks had made just 6 of their first 18 from the charity stripe. ‘It’ was discovered at the end as the Greyhounds would send CL to the line on multiple occasions in order of making a comeback.
The free throw was not free for this game as CL was a dismal 4 out of 17 from the stripe up until 1:46 was left on the clock. Then ‘it’ was found for the remainder of the game as Canyon Lake made 11 out of 12 free throws to finish the game.
Coach Chapman planning strategy in Hawk Victory
There were more ‘it’ sightings throughout this contest as ‘it’ became apparent, this might be the game, with a different outcome.
The contest was only tied once (10-10) in that first quarter but the lead changed hands 6 times. Heath McDonough had an offensive rebound and a put back to give the Hawks the advantage for good, right before the 3rd quarter horn with only 1 second left on the clock.
‘It’ was part of that McDonough play as the Hawks only trailed in this game a total of 1:35 of clock time.
Heath McDonough finished the game with a career and season high, 17 points and had a double-double with 10 rebounds.
“We wanted to come out and finish,” McDonough started. “We went into halftime and we said our first half was not good enough and we wanted to build on the lead.”
Rory Preiss scored his average (14) and dished out 6 assists in this win as almost every Hawk had significant time on the court, and with that, came an all round game in having just 13 turnovers, helping contribute to this outcome.
Those were 10 turnovers while playing a pressing defense and on other nights, ‘it’ would have been reached in the first quarter as ‘it’ did not happen in this win.
Jacob Ramirez had one 3 pointer the old fashion way (with a free throw) and 2 from beyond the arc. Ramirez’s stat line did not stop there as he had, ‘it’, with 5 rebounds/6 assist/2 steals to go along with his handling the ball in breaking the press.
Go Hawks & Congrats on Boerne Win!
This was an ebb and flow contest as the Hawks rushed out to a 19-11 lead in the first quarter before Boerne reeled CL back in with a couple of three pointers to trail 2 points before Caimen McDonough found ‘it’ with a basket from point blank range after an assist from Preiss. The Lake would finish the first 8 minutes with a 21-17 lead.
The Greyhounds would continue a mini-run to start the 2nd quarter as they led, 23-21 with 1:30 into that stanza. CL would go on a 9 point run to counter Boerne with Ryner Martin having ‘it’ from beyond the arc during this spell.
“I just try to come in to bring a spark for the team,” Martin assessed. “They started keying up on us in the 2nd half.”
Martin was talking on how Boerne did not allow a three-pointer in those last two quarters. But during the first half, Martin made the Greyhounds pay for not guarding this guard.
“I am suppose to run a play and they did not come out to guard me so I smacked the shot,” Martin spoke in a different language. “I ‘wet-it’.”
Boerne would fight back again after sinking 2 free throws trailing, 30-28 with under two minutes before half.
Charlie McIntosh made one from the stripe and then a Ramirez three pointer after a sweet pass from Heath McDonough gave the Hawks a 6 point advantage finishing that first half, 34-28.
During the 3rd quarter, Canyon Lake might have misplaced ‘it’ in their locker room as the Hawks were only able to score 8 points or a point a minute in this quarter.
‘It’ was found in the Hawk’s defense during this quarter after holding Boerne to 13 points and still enjoying a one point lead entering the 4th time slot. Heath McDonough did have ‘it’ scoring wise for the Hawks as he was the only player to score points.
Go Canyon Lake
‘It’ was a Heath McDonough’s 2 point shot with less than one second to end the 3rd which gave CL a, 42-41 lead.
Canyon Lake jumped out of their huddle to seize another 9 point lead after Joseph Boyd started the last quarter with short jumper then Ramirez found Preiss for a lay-up 10 seconds later. This run continued as that same combo, Ramirez to Preiss was good seconds later.
“I was helping on defense and I want to distribute the ball,” Boyd said. “My offense will happen off our defense.”
Boyd continued, “We have a lot of confidence when we can push and have an uptempo like we did tonight and then just go from there.”
Then Tyler Williams was fouled after a fight for a rebound, that would have something not yet seen during this contest. Two free throws going in consecutively. The lead? 50-41 as this carnage took just 1:30 off the clock.
From this point on, the Hawks, would score 9 more times from the charity stripe as Heath McDonough had the only baskets to end the 4th quarter.
“This was our biggest win,” Boyd closed. “We have been playing Boerne since the 8th grade and we beat them once in middle school, but winning tonight feels pretty good.”
‘It’ was a fun game for the Hawks and the next game will be in Hondo next Tuesday and then another big battle when 1st Place Fredericksburg pays the Hawks a visit next Friday.
‘It’ might have come from the student section too, “Our Student Section did a good job of getting into their head,” Heath McDonough thought back.
Hopefully ‘it’ won’t be the same for the Billies this time!!
Go Hawks!
1 2 3 4 Final Boerne 17 11 13 15 56 CL Hawks 21 13 8 21 63 3pt tot rebounds fgm-fga fgm-fga ftm-fta pts or-dr tot a s b to Jacob Ramirez 3-6 2-4 1-2 9 0-5 5 6 2 2 3 Bennie Brownlee 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 1 Gerrit Wilkins 0-1 0-0 2-2 2 0-1 1 3 0 0 0 Ryner Martin 3-7 3-6 0-0 9 0-1 1 1 0 1 0 Rory Preiss 4-11 1-3 5-10 14 0-7 7 6 2 1 5 Heath McDonough 8-13 0-1 1-6 17 4-6 10 1 0 1 2 Caimen McDonough 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 1-1 2 0 1 1 0 Charlie McIntosh 0-0 0-0 1-2 1 0-0 0 0 0 0 1 Parker Mott 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Joseph Boyd 1-4 0-0 3-4 5 2-1 3 0 1 1 0 Tyler Williams 1-1 0-0 2-2 4 1-5 6 0 0 1 1 totals 21-46 6-14 15-29 63 8-27 35 17 6 8 13 percentages 46% 43% 52%
