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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