Waelder comes back from 21-point deficit, loses 59-51

WAELDER — The Wildcats hosted a non-district game against the Aggieland Home School Panthers due to forfeiture by district-opponent Prairie Lea.

“We knew at the break with a guy moving out of their district and Nordheim having a guy become ineligible that it put us behind the eight ball,” Wildcats coach David President said of the non-district game. “We were searching for games and that’s a great game for us. We won’t see that kind of height in our region.”

Waelder lost the game 59-51 to a Panthers team that fielded a squad full of six-footers including center Jeremiah Allen who is listed at 6’ 9”, 225 pounds.

The Wildcats gave up easy baskets to the visiting Panthers for a quick five-point deficit. However, Waelder shot out to an 8-6 lead scoring on a Tracy Moore basket and two three-pointers by Caleb Ibarra.

The scoring went back and forth until the Panthers capped off the quarter with four points to tie the game at 12.

Early in the second, Waelder were able to find holes in the Panthers zone defense but were unable to get their shots to fall, allowing Aggieland to build a big lead. The Panthers would go on to a 10-0 run before Waelder made their first shot of the quarter.

Coach President attributed the slow start to the amount of break they’ve had due to cancelations and forfeitures.

“We haven’t played in about a week in a half, so our guys don’t have their legs up under them,” President said. “With us not being as deep as we normally are, I’m not able to get those subs in there, get those guys rest so we had to try to use our timeouts sparingly.”

“Guys get tired,” President continued, “you’re playing 32 minutes, you’re going to get tired and your shots are going to fall short.”

Waelder tried to mount a comeback in the quarter with a score by Moore and a three pointer from Jeremy Gonzales.

The Panthers continued scoring though, extending their lead to 28-17 before Ibarra shot another three to bring Waelder within eight. A made free throw near the end of the half gave Aggieland the 29-20 lead heading into the second half.

The missed shots from Waelder again took effect as the bigger Aggieland team out rebounded the Wildcats and scored on fast breaks during their 12-0 run to begin the third quarter.

It wasn’t until there were less than two minutes left before Waelder finally got on the board with a three from Ibarra to cut the lead to 43-23. Another basket by Ibarra cut it down to 18 before back and forth scoring ended the quarter with the score at 47-26 in favor of the visitors.

Ibarra came alive for Waelder, scoring five straight to start the fourth quarter before Aggieland called a timeout with the score at 47-31. The Panthers and the Wildcats traded scores, except for every Panther two pointer came a three from Ibarra and Gonzales.

Later in the game Moore registered a steal and made an easy two to cut the lead further to 51-39 with less than four minutes to go in the game. After one made free throw from the Panthers, Waelder went on a 7-0 run, forcing turnovers and converting free throws to come within six with 2:18 to go in the game and the score at 52-46.

“We just tightened up defensively, we didn’t give up second-shot opportunities,” President said of the comeback. “We got a couple of buckets of buckets in transition, caused a couple of turnovers and got to the free-throw line, which I don’t think we did as much in the first half.”

“We just fought our way back in, continued to get stops and found ourselves back in the ball game.”

With 1:24 left in the game, Waelder put Aggieland at the free-throw line when a steal attempted was called back for a foul. After the two made free throws, another foul was called immediately after, this time by the visitors, giving Waelder’s Steven Ewing the chance to bring the Wildcats within six again.

Ewing made the two shots and Waelder pressured the Panthers until another foul was called, sending Aggieland back to the free-throw line on the one-and-one attempt.

This miss was rebounded by another Aggieland player, despite four Wildcats being around the basket during the miss. Another foul sent him to the line as the Panther nailed both shots to make the score 56-48 with 56 seconds left in the game.

Rushing down the court, trying to find an open shot, Gonzales finally found an opening and nailed a three pointer with 34 seconds to go to cut the lead to five.

The Panthers finally killed the comeback with a score with 26 seconds left and another turnover that ended the game at 59-51.

“The guys played, they competed and I can’t ask for much,” President said. “We’re missing two of our starters (Deondrae Fields and Keyshann Fields) and for them to come out the way they did and going down by 20, 22 and fighting all the way back, I cant ask more from my players.”

Despite the loss against non-district opponent Aggieland, the Wildcats still register a district win against Prairie Lea, giving them a 2-0 record in district. They’re on break tonight but Waelder will travel Tuesday to Austwell-Tivoli for a district matchup scheduled for a 7 p.m. tipoff.