Apaches smoke Yoakum

Playoffs are becoming a way of life for the Gonzales Apaches. Even if it meant drudging the Yoakum Bulldogs in the process to prepare, then so be it.

Gonzales (18-11, 7-4) was unstoppable on Friday, using 10-0 run spurts throughout in a lopsided affair and simply dominating in every phase in downing the Yoakum Bulldogs 80-45.

It was a strong message that Gonzales is no fluke as it clinched its 15th straight playoff appearance, the first for Head Coach Jason Tucker.

“We’ve gotten pretty good at being versatile, changing up between zone and man defense,” said Tucker. “I told the team that even though we lost against Sam Houston and Pleasanton, that is only going to help us down the line.”

Though the Apaches remain with one game on Friday to close out District 28-3A play at Poteet, Gonzales preps for the runnerup team in District 27-3A and will face either Carrizo Springs or Hondo in bidistrict one week from now. Somerset clinched the 27-3A championship.

Seniors Blake Moore and Mark Hastings were thorns on the side of the Bulldogs. The duo worked both the inside and outside games and had Yoakum scrambling defensively for help all night. Hastings led all scorers with 25 points in the contest. Moore added 24 points.

But if they weren’t enough, senior Kedrick Cray also kept them off-kilter, adding 16 points including a dunk at the start of the second quarter to extend the Gonzales lead 33-12.

Yoakum’s only threat came in the first quarter when Kerry Linn hit a jumper and was fouled on the ensuing possession to make his two free throws and cut Gonzales’ lead in half 8-4.

But Hastings ended the run, making his first of three 3-pointers from the wing. Gonzales never looked back from there, extending its lead 23-10 to end the first quarter.

It was much of the same in the second quarter with Gonzales increasing its lead by 27 points as the first half came to a close.

Gonzales took as much as a 39-point lead in the fourth quarter despite the efforts of Yoakum reserve Joe Mireles coming off of the bench and sinking back-to-back 3-pointers to keep the Bulldog fans in it.

Linn led Yoakum with 17 points. Mireles finished with nine points.

“At this point, we know what we can do and what we can’t do,” said Tucker. “We need to tweak some things here and there and see what we can do to make them play our game as we look to the playoffs.”