A Much Needed Win as Hawks Beat the Badgers, 55-48
Rory Preiss scored 21 points in win over Karnes City (photo by Karen Holmes)
Karnes City brought their undefeated 18-0 season to the Hawk Nest and left a defeated team with a Hawk hard fought win, 55-48.
That 7 point victory was not as easy as it might look as Canyon Lake was fighting from behind for most of this contest. The Badgers jumped out to an, 11-2 lead as CL had committed 7 turnovers in the first 5 minutes in digging their 9 point deficit hole.
After a Rory Preiss 2 point shot, Jacob Ramirez would then respond with two 3 point shots in a row drawing the game back to a one point contest with 1:43 left on that first quarter clock.
KC had another 3 pointer to end this first stanza up by 4 points, as this undefeated team showed a lot of talent on the court.
Cup of Joe wants to wake up to Hawk wins
The Badgers would open up with an 8 point lead to start the next quarter as those Hawk turnovers helped in digging another hole.
Canyon Lake would have 4 of their 5 turnovers to start the 2nd quarter in those first 3 minutes, then a Gerrit Wilkins 3 point shot after a nifty pass from Tyler Williams started another Hawk comeback in cutting the Badgers lead as this was a carbon copy of that first 8 minutes to start the game.
“We got more comfortable and calmed down as the game goes along,” Wilkins said in response to the slow start for each of those quarters.
Karnes City would build their lead back to 8 points halfway into the quarter, but CL would outscore the Badgers 10-2 to close out the half and tie the game at, 23-23.
Preiss was Instrumental in the come back with a conventional shot beyond the arc and then swishing 3 free throws after being fouled on his next attempt.
Offensive rebounds helped close out the Hawk run when Heath McDonough and Ramirez both scored off their rebounds with defense that held KC with one point for the remaining 3 minutes going into the half-time locker room.
Hawks Fly High in Win!!
Karnes City stayed with the game script to start the second half upping their lead to 8 points, 34-26 in the first 4 minutes in this quarter.
Canyon Lake kept digging and responded with a 10-4 run to end the 3rd quarter. The Hawks still found themselves down 2 points, 36-38. With six turnovers in that first half of this quarter CL stayed within their script for this drama.
The Hawks had not led in the game until Williams scored with his relentless work under the basket at the 4:20 mark left in the game.
“I have been working a lot under the basket and rebounds will give us points,” Williams said.
On playing the Badgers good post player, “I had to constantly block him out and get him out of his game,” Williams said with resolve.
Canyon Lake had 3 Hawks in double digit rebounds as Williams led with 12, while Heath McDonough and Preiss finished the contest with 11 and 10 respectfully.
“We started off the first and third quarters with no energy,” Head Coach Luke Chapman stated. “What helped us was our offensive rebounds and that shows hustle and our guys playing with great effort.”
The Hawks finished with 52 rebounds and 22 of those bounds came on the offensive side of the court.
Wilkins scored 5 points from the free throw line with his first 4 being without a miss. Two points that scored increased the lead to, 43-40 and then after a Badger 3 pointer, Wilkins would make two more from the charity strip giving CL another 2 point lead.
Hair by Stephanie is Hawk Proud
Good things happened with those free throw makes as that kept the Badgers at arms length as the game got near the end.
Williams had also raised his game from the charity stripe finishing with 5 points from the line.
“I have been working on my free throws,” Williams aimed. “I am just thinking of my form and concentration.”
“It’s a groove thing and a mental thing on the line,” Wilkins said in response to his free throw shooting. “When I saw the first one go in it gave me confidence.
Preiss who finished with 21 points scored from beyond the arc and before that a Williams bucket had both teams being nick and tuck with a tied affair with 1:48 left left on the regulation clock.
Preiss then scored his 3rd basket from long range after Wilkins found him open to open up a 3 point lead which was the largest for the Hawks up to that point. Moments later after a Badger miss, Ramirez saw an open Preiss for an easy lay-up for a Hawk 5 point lead, 53-48 with just 40 seconds remaining.
CL used a 7-0 run to end the game staying within script by finishing strong at the end of each quarter during this game. As this win would give the Badgers their first loss this year.
Canyon Lake had suffered a 4 game losing streak in the Fredericksburg’s Tournament and this game was needed in ways that cannot be described.
Go Hawks
Ramirez had 13 points and joined Preiss in scoring for Canyon Lake, but a 7 block game from Williams topped all those talking points for this game as the Hawks finished with a team total of 13 which both are now all-time records.
The Hawks would finish their 4th quarter with 3 turnovers that were committed during the first part the quarter, but reducing those take-aways allowed CL to break the script and take this game for a curtain call and win.
“This win was good for us and it gives us energy and gives us confidence,” Wilkins closed. “We needed this win.”
The ReSporter could not have said it any better.
Good Win Hawks keep it up!!!
1 2 3 4 Final Karens City 14 9 15 10 48 CL Hawks 10 13 13 19 55 3pt tot rebounds fgm-fga fgm-fga ftm-fta pts or-dr tot a s b to Jacob Ramirez 5-13 3-11 0-0 13 4-4 8 3 2 1 2 Bennie Brownlee 0-4 0-3 0-0 0 1-2 3 1 1 0 5 Gerrit Wilkins 1-5 1-3 5-6 8 2-4 6 2 0 0 4 Ryner Martin 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-0 0 2 1 2 2 Rory Preiss 7-16 3-6 4-5 21 3-7 10 1 3 3 6 Heath McDonough 2-3 0-0 0-1 4 7-4 11 1 1 0 1 Caimen McDonough 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Charlie McIntosh 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 1-1 2 0 0 0 0 Parker Mott 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 1 Tyler Williams 2-4 0-0 5-8 9 4-8 12 1 2 7 0 totals 17-48 7-25 14-20 55 22-30 52 11 10 13 21 percentages 35% 28% 70%
