Hondo Anvil Herald
Published in Hondo, Texas
Online
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February 5, 2026
PHOTO / JEFF BERGER
Markel Bradley draws the contact and stretches to connect for a short jumper during the Hondo Owls’ win over Lytle last Friday. After visiting Crystal City this Friday, they’ll be back at home on Tuesday, taking on Natalia.
PHOTO / JEFF BERGER
Mason Barr drives around Lytle’s Seth Pierce in the Owls’ District 28-3A win last Friday. Hondo hosts Natalia on Tuesday in its next home game.
Hondo takes 4th straight, visits CC Friday
Things have begun to jell for the Hondo boys’ basketball team in the past few weeks.
Hondo scored a pair of double-digit wins, beating Lytle at home on Friday, Jan. 30, 75-65, and then going on the road Tuesday, Feb. 3, where a fourth quarter explosion carried them to a 91-60 runaway win over Cotulla.
Winners of four straight games and five of the last six, the Owls (11-19 season, 7-3 district) will get their biggest test of the season this Friday, Feb. 6, when they travel to the home court of District 28-3A leader, Crystal City, which is now 10-0 in league play.
On Tuesday, Feb. 10, the Owls will be back home against Natalia.
In the win over Lytle, the Hondo boys’ first over the Pirates in about five years, the teams traded leads a dozen times in the first half before the Owls took a 28-25 lead into the locker room.
Hondo took an eight-point lead late in the third period, but a minute into the fourth, the Pirates had trimmed the margin down to 48-47. The Owls refused to blink, and quickly pushed the lead back out to seven points. Hondo had an answer for every Lytle bucket, scoring 29 points in the fourth and eventually winning by 10.
The Owls had four players in double figures, with 19 from Josiah Quintanilla, 18 from Kolten Alvarez, 15 from Jeremiah Lopez and 12 from Markel Bradley. Their totals counteracted Lytle’s one-two punch from Chase Guevara and Seth Pierce, who scored 25 and 24.
Tuesday in Cotulla, the Owls, just as they did against Lytle, picked up steam as the night went on, turning a three-point lead at halftime into an eight-point gap after three. Then in the fourth, the Owls unloaded for 33 points, while holding the Cowboys to just nine.
Hondo has now scored 62 points in its last two fourth periods, and the 91 points is the high for a season in which the team hadn’t even scored 80.
Quintanilla lit it up with 31 points, with 22 from Bradley, who hit four three-pointers. Lopez scored 18, with eight each from Alvarez and Mason Barr.