Sports

PHOTO BY CHARLES CARLSON

Senior Caleb Gentry soars to the hoop in Hondo’s area playoff win over Mathis on Friday. The next round was the end of the road for the Owls, in an 80-68 regional quarterfinal loss to West Oso.

West Oso’s late push knocks out Hondo

By Jeff Berger
Anvil Herald Sports Editor

Beeville -- Spot ’em 12. Lose by 12.

In a nutshell, that was the story of the Hondo Owls’ 3A regional quarterfinal playoff loss to West Oso Monday night, March 1.

But there was a little more to the Owls’ 80-68 loss to the state’s second ranked team at A.C. Jones High School’s Marion B. Horton Gymnasium.

Hondo fought all the way back from that early 17-5 deficit, getting it as close as five late in the first quarter, falling behind by 14 in the second, but cutting it to six at halftime. The Owls took their first lead of the game with 3:28 left in the third, at 40-39. The lead would change hands five times in the third and fourth quarters. But West Oso, in the final three minutes, showed the same gear in which it played for the first three minutes, finishing on a 20-6 run. Just like the 17-5 run in the first three minutes.

“They had a little more left than we did at the end,” said Hondo Coach Fred McCollum, who guided the team to a school record 30-4 season, eclipsing the mark of 29-4 set in 1999. “They have some tremendous athletes, and (Raymond) Robinson is just hard to match up with. We don’t have anyone 6’3” that can play inside or out.”
Oso raced to the 17-5 lead behind the all-around play of Robinson, who scored 13 of his game-high 30 in the first period, and a pair of threes from Willie Harper.

But Hondo showed its first signs of resilience by not letting the Bears run them out of the gym. The Owls turned up the defense, holding the Bears to a single free throw over the next four minutes, while cutting the margin to 18-13. Caleb Gentry hit a pair of threes during the stretch, and Ben Keilman finished the quarter with a bucket off the offensive glass to make the score 21-15.

As fast as the Bears started the first period, though, they were even faster midway through the second. Neither team scored for the first two minutes of the period, but after a pair of free throws broke the ice, West Oso scored on three straight steals and fast breaks to take a 29-15 lead, their biggest lead of the night.

Back came Hondo again. Starting with a pair of threes from Jason Gentry and Jose DeLaCruz, the Owls finished the half with a 7-0 run of their own, getting a basket from Caleb Gentry and a bucket-and-one from Tyler Barrios. Chase Gardenhire stood his ground defensively, drawing a charge from Robinson, hitting a follow shot at the other end to cut the margin to 35-29 and grabbing the last rebound to keep the Owls within six at the break.

After the teams traded free throws and layups to open the second half, the Owls scored six straight points to take their first lead at 40-39. Keilman hit a turn-around jumper, and both Gentrys hit short runners to put the Owls ahead.

The Bears countered with a three from LaDaniel Marshall, but those were West Oso’s points in the midst of a 12-3 Hondo run. Caleb Gentry hit two free throws, Keilman scored off an assist from Jason Gentry, who then added his own layup on a steal and assist from DeLaCruz. That gave Hondo its biggest lead of the night at 49-44, with 1:30 left in the third.

But Robinson came back to life, scoring two buckets before the end of the period, to cut Hondo’s lead down to a single point.

The Bears reclaimed the lead and held it until DeLaCruz buried his third three pointer of the game, tying it at 60 with four minutes to play.

Two Gardenhire free throws put Hondo ahead as Robinson picked up his fourth foul.

But the final 3:42 of the game is where the Bears took over. Led by the perimeter defense of Andrue Haywood, who scored 13 of his 15 points in the fourth period, the Bears turned the final score into one which looked a little more one-sided than the game actually was.

Playing his final game for the Owls, Caleb Gentry scored 28 points, with Jason, his sophomore brother, scoring 12.

The loss ends the Owls’ season one game short of the school’s fourth trip to the 3A boys’ regional tournament.

West Oso will face Stafford in the second semifinal Friday in the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi. Somerset will face Boerne in the 6 p.m. game.

The Bears had four players in double figures. Besides Robinson and Haywood, Harper finished with 16, including four threes, and post Xavier Johnson scored 10.

West Oso will play Stafford Friday in the Region IV-3A boys tournament, at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi. In the early semifinal are Somerset and Boerne.

Owls put away Mathis in 3rd

By Danny Starnes
Anvil Herald Correspondent

Floresville -- In the Hondo Owls’ 53-40 area playoff win over the Mathis Pirates, the teams played evenly throughout the entire game, except for the 3rd quarter, when the Owls dominated.

The first half between the Owls and Pirates was contested evenly, as both teams gave 100% effort on every play, even when the play looked like it was over.

For instance, Hondo’s Jonah Ytuarte stole the ball from Mathis, passed it up court, but too high for Caleb Gentry to pull down. Instead of giving up, Gentry made an over the shoulder pass to Ben Keilman under the basket, who tipped it back to Ytuarte, who found Jose DeLaCruz open for a three-pointer.

Most teams would’ve been demoralized by such a play, but not the Pirates. On the next Owls possession, the Pirates stole the ball and made the easy layup. This back and forth play went on all half with the Owls getting a bucket at the end to lead 23-18.

The third quarter is where things fell apart for Mathis. The Owls built a big lead as Mathis began to tire, playing sloppily on offense and slow on defense. To cap off the third, the Pirates made a layup with 8.7 seconds left. But knowing they had plenty of time, the Owls charged up court and Caleb Gentry heaved a deep three point shot, which went in as time expired.

Hondo outscored Mathis 17-5 in the 3rd quarter to push the lead to 40-23, effectively ending Mathis’ hopes.

The fourth quarter was played like the first two, back and forth, which was fine for the Owls.

At one point the Pirates managed to cut the gap to eight points but Hondo held on to win by a final score of 53-40, with 21 points from Caleb Gentry.

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