3-Peat: Comanches win district again

SHINER — It has become a tradition as of late with the Shiner boys basketball team — a district championship.

Coming into the 2012-13 season, the Comanches won a district championship three of the last four seasons under Wendell Boner. Shiner, now under the direction of Noe McCarthy, can make that four district championships in the last five after the Comanches held off Weimar, 45-37, Friday at Shiner High School.

“I’m blessed to be able to work with this group of guys,” McCarthy said. “I owe a lot of credit to Coach Boner for building this program. He did a great job with these guys the last few years, and it’s great to be able to pick up where he left off.”

Unlike many coaching changes where the previous head coach leaves the school altogether for a new job, Boner is still at Shiner. He stepped down from his head basketball position to focus more on the track and field program.

McCarthy — Boner’s assistant for three seasons — was promoted to head boys basketball coach once Boner made the decision to be the head coach in boys track and field only. Boner is still involved with the Comanches’ basketball program as the junior high boys coach.

Shiner (7-5, 6-1 in District 29-A-Division I) clinched a share of the district crown and can clinch it outright with a win at Louise tonight. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 at Louise High School.

Everything came in threes for the Comanches in the first quarter as all of their points came courtesy of the 3-point shot. Evel Jones hit a trio of 3-pointers, while Kris Patek and Justin Stovall both hit one as Shiner and Weimar battled to a 15-15 tie after the opening period of play.

The Wildcats opened the second quarter on a 5-2 run to take a 20-17 lead before Caleb Kalich hit a layup and Patek knocked down a pair of free throws to put the Comanches back up 21-20. Weimar scored the next four points to take a 24-21 lead at halftime.

The third quarter belonged to Shiner as Jones and Stovall hit back-to-back layups and Chad Neubauer hit a 3-pointer to give their team the lead for good, 28-24, midway through the period. Following a Weimar free throw — its only point of the third — Cole Strauss hit a layup off of an offensive rebound to give the Comanches a 30-25 lead heading into the final quarter of play.

“Our defense played well and Weimar cooled off in the second half,” McCarthy said. “We rotated better and contested shots as well.”

Shiner opened the fourth on a 10-4 run to take its biggest leadoff the game, 40-29, with three minutes left to play. Stovall had 6 points during the spurt, while Jones and Neubauer had 3 and 1, respectively.

The Wildcats scored 6 straight points to pull within five, 40-35, with 1:10 left in the contest before Jones knocked down a 3-pointer to put the game out of reach. Following a Weimar layup with 12 seconds left, Stovall hit a pair of free throws to put the game away.

“We ran off of rebounds, played hard and scored,” Jones said. “It means a lot to be district champs again. Every year we play hard and want to play for a district title.”

Jones led the way for the Comanches with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Stovall scored 13 points, Patek had 5, and Kalich and Neubauer both had 4.

“We wanted to keep the tradition going,” Strauss said. “Our school is known for its success in football and baseball, and we want to be known for having success in all sports. Our senior class expects to win in everything. We still have to work more as a team and fix the little things like rebounding, turnovers, etc. We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do, and it doesn’t happen overnight.”

Following the win, Shiner players lined up in front of a stepladder positioned below the goal at the west side of the gym and took turns cutting down the net in celebration of the district championship. The win over Weimar also happened to be the final home game for seniors Jones, Patek and Strauss.