Apaches show ‘fight’ in district loss

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GONZALES — The Apaches are still in search of their first district loss as they lost at home Tuesday to the Austin Eastside Memorial Panthers, 76-58. Gonzales dropped to 0-3 while Austin Eastside moved to 2-2 after the game.

Despite suffering another tough District 27-4A loss, Apaches’ head coach Derek Williams noticed a big improvement in team effort and knows that eventually, something has to give for the Gonzales Apaches.

“After coming off of last week’s disappointing home loss, I wanted to see the guys come out and fight tonight,” Williams said. “I think we did until one of our star players picks up four fouls, three minutes into the first quarter. We’re up at that point. I think that hurt us.”

“A full team effort,” Williams continued, “I thought the kids fought and fought and I just thought we played 10 times better than we did last week.”

The Apaches ran off a 7-2 win with scores from Khalil Smith and Ryan Perez. But after Smith accumulated too many fouls too early, as Williams referred to, Austin Eastside would run a 12-0 run before Trevion McNeil scored Gonzales’ next basket to cut the lead to 14-9. The first quarter would end with a 17-13 lead for the Panthers.

The Panthers would increase their lead in the second quarter, using their quickness to attack the rim and get to the free-throw line. Austin Eastside would attempt 17 free throws against Gonzales’ five.

“[The Panthers] are a very good team, probably the fastest team in district,” Williams noted. “They’re very long and those guys attack the rims. I thought that we attacked the rim also. I don’t think the calls were even.”

Williams also mentioned that he was OK with the fouls, putting the visitors on the line.

“We made them earn their points and so I thought that was OK,” he said, “I just felt we attacked the basket also, I thought [Aaron] Hunt should have gotten 10 times more calls and he didn’t. I thought that was off as far as the foul calls go but they attacked the basket and we weren’t going to let them attack the basket this week.”

Down 15 at the half, Smith came back in the third to help decrease the deficit before picking up his fifth foul with 6:35 left in the quarter. Even as the Apaches tried to fight back with Hunt picking up 10 points in the third quarter while McNeil added another four, the Panthers’ three-point shooting began to hit as the team combined for five three-pointers in that quarter versus making just three in the first half altogether.

“It was a huge factor,” Williams said of Austin Eastside’s outside shooting. “Later in the quarter, Hunt hits a big-time three-point basket, we cut it down to 12 and they come down and hit two=three pointers in a row with nobody in their face, so I think having so many young guys still on the floor and learning…sometimes those sophomores and freshmen have those mental lapses. We still haven’t been able to put it all together.”

Hunt would foul out with 6:43 left in the fourth as the Apaches struggled to get out of the hole late in the game. The team got within 13 before Austin Eastside again made two back-to-back three pointers to all but clinch the game.

Despite the loss, Williams believed there was more fight in this game than last week’s blowout loss to Wimberley. He accredited McNeil and Hunt for their play as well as Luis Segura who came away with eight points Tuesday.

“I don’t think there’s one kid in this basketball program that plays harder than Luis Segura and Trevion McNeil,” Williams said. “I think Hunt finally turned the corner tonight. He’s been averaging four points a game and I thought coming back from his accident last week, he gave us heavy minutes and a good solid performance. I think those three guys really played their butts off tonight. If those three can continue to climb, I think we’ll be fine.”

Williams went on to highlight McNeil’s post game as something to watch for as well as Segura’s hustle throughout the game. Freshman Diego Diaz de Leon was also highlighted as he came away with five points Tuesday, including a key three-point play early in the second quarter.

“I think that freshman is going to be OK,” Williams said of Diaz de Leon.

Near the midpoint, the Apaches play Navarro (1-2) tonight for their final game of the front end of district.

“It’s going to be a big game,” Williams said. “They were down to La Vernia by 20 last week and came back and won that game in double overtime. We usually play Navarro pretty good at Navarro and in here. I truly feel if we continue to play as hard as we play tonight, something’s got to give.”

The Apaches are on the road for their game against Navarro. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m.

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District 27-4A    
  W L %
 Wimberley 3 0 1.000
 La Vernia 2 1 0.667
 Austin Eastside 2 2 0.500
 Navarro 1 2 0.333
 Gonzales 0 3 0.000

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