CL Hawks Stop Navarro’s 10 Game Win Streak, 59-36

Jarred Rollins made both 3 point attempts in win over Navarro.           (photo by Karen Holmes)

Canyon Lake broke a 10 game losing streak to Navarro when the Hawks blitzed the Panthers with their best game this season, 59-36 on Friday night at the Hawk Nest.

Don Chente says keep going strong Canyon Lake Hawks!!

CL’s last win was during the 2013 season when the Hawks won, 60-47 in the Randolph Tournament. Canyon Lake would finish that season losing twice in district play to those same Panthers.

“When we play with that type of energy then we can win games,” Head Coach Lucas Chapman deduced. “That was the best we have played all year and the team flew all-round the court and made our press look good…..we can win a lot of games when we play like that.”

A tenuous lead of 6 points to start the 2nd period still had CL fans wondering when the wheels would fall off and to Navarro’s chagrin the wheels stayed on while these Hawks enjoyed this ride for the full game as they won every quarter and enjoyed their largest lead, 55-28 in the 4th quarter with 3:19 left on the clock.

Canyon Lake has had a hard time playing the Panthers, as they got close last year in Bi-District play with a 3 point loss, 46-43 to end their season. This time, a hot and cold Hawks club was in focus as they never took their eye off the road with this 23 point blow-out.

                Way to Go Hawks!!

The win comes one week before District 28-4A play begins and all the teams start with a clean slate, 0-0 records.

CL had 3 players reach double-digit scoring as Jarred Rollins used his energy with a 15 point outing and hit 2 three pointers to match his season total in this battle. Parker Mott and Caimen McDonough both settled in with 11 points a piece.

“This was a great team win,” Rollins said. “This happened because we played good defense and played all 4 quarters…..I told the Seniors that we had 10 more games left and that we wanted to make history.”

There was a stretch during the 3rd period when Navarro cut the lead to 8 points to start the 2nd half and then Tae Gray found Rollins open for his first 3 pointer and a double digit lead that would increase for the remainder of the contest.

“I’m happy….and I shot the ball well,” Rollins said with passion. “Our team played our ‘Back-side’ off (use your own interpretation on what was said) and now we will concentrate on Wimberley and then district.”

  Way to hang a Loss on Navarro!!

A decent night of shooting from the field but it was the Hawk’s defense that made their presence known as that part of the game forced the Panthers into 27 turnovers while getting 16 steals keeping the Panthers out of sync and searching for some sort of rhythm during this contest.

Canyon Lake had started their series with Navarro back during the 2011 season and had come close a few times but most of those losses were usually double digit set-backs.

Navarro would jump out to a 4 point lead, 9-5 at the 2:54 mark of the first period when CL would start their move. The Hawks would go into half-time by outscoring the Visitors, 22-6 and a 27-15 advantage.

The Panthers did make a couple more runs at CL, as they jumped out in the 2nd half with a 6-2 advantage, cutting the Hawks lead down to 8 points with still 6 minutes remaining in that 3rd period. A 13-4 run to end that quarter, had Canyon Lake with a comfortable, 42-25 advantage going into that final frame.

                       Go Hawks!!

Canyon Lake shot 8 for 10 from the charity stripe in that final quarter which would squash any hope for a comeback for Navarro while a healthy dose of Rollins and Caimen McDonough in the paint as these two big men combined for 14 points in that 2nd half that helped the lead to increase steadily until the end of this long awaited victory after 10 tries.

CL needed this win big time as they prepare for District 28 play and now with just one more non-district contest with Wimberley next Tuesday at the Hawk Nest, the curtain will be raised for another district season.

A win against our Neighbors on the other side of the ‘Back-Bone’ would be another sign that this Hawk record is just that and those losses and wins were for getting this Hawk team where they can compete in a tough district where all 4 teams are sporting winning records.

2014 Hawk 1 point loss to Wimberley with Riali taking charge

Just for the records, Canyon Lake, has yet to beat the Texans as Wimberley enjoys an 18 game winning streak of their own. The Hawks best chance was during the 2014 season when Wimberley was able to win, 47-46.

Andrew Riali drained a last second shot from beyond the arc, but that play was too late and did not count leaving the Hawks still waiting for that first Battle of the Backbone conquest.

Maybe this will be that Year….Go Hawks!!

             1  2  3  4  Final
 Navarro     9  6 10 11  36
 CL Hawks   15 12 15 17  59

                           3pt           tot rebounds
                 fgm-fga fgm-fga ftm-fta pts or-dr tot  a  s  b  to
 Zach Griffin      0-4     0-3     3-4    3   0-0   0   3  1  0  1
 Zack Taliaferro   3-5     1-1     2-5    9   0-3   3   3  3  0  4
 Parker Mott       2-8     2-5     5-6   11   1-2   3   2  1  0  2
 Tae Gray          1-3     0-1     2-3    4   0-1   1   3  3  0  1
 Noah Gray         0-3     0-0     2-2    2   5-0   5   1  1  0  0
 Caimen McDonough  5-7     0-0     1-2   11   4-2   6   0  1  0  1
 Jarred Rollins    6-11    2-2     1-2   15   4-3   7   0  4  0  1
 Michael Harwell   0-4     0-0     2-4    2   3-4   7   2  1  2  1
 Andrew Nelson     0-1     0-1     0-0    0   0-0   0   0  0  0  0
 Matthew Coyne     0-0     0-0     0-0    0   0-0   0   0  0  0  0
 Ben Fulton        1-4     0-0     0-0    2   0-0   0   0  1  0  0
 totals           18-50    5-13   18-28  59  17-15 32  14 16  2 11
 percentages       36%     38%     64%