CUERO — Cuero made eight field goals in the second quarter against San Antonio Kennedy, and they were all 3-pointers.
The Gobblers converted 13 shots from 3-point range and ran off with a 68-32 District 28-4A win Friday night at the Roost.
“We have the scoring machine during practice and we always practice those shots,” said senior Dayson Varela. “We get at least 200 shots in.”
Varela and Tycen Williams each made four 3-pointers, Daylon Gibbs converted a trio of 3-pointers, and Will Carbonara and David Leinen each added one from behind the 3-point line, as Cuero improved to 15-4 on the season and 7-2 in district and a share of second place.
“That’s how we warmup every day,” said Cuero coach Michael Blank. “We do the 3-point game out of our break. When you press and you do things like that, you want to be able to throw that dagger and if they’re going down, it’s a fun night.”
The Gobblers used their press to create a flurry of turnovers in the first quarter. After the Rockets (17-14, 5-5) made the game’s first basket, Cuero closed out the quarter with a 16-2 run.
“It created a whole bunch of turnovers and got us free points,” Williams said. “We’re not that tall, but we’re very explosive and athletic.”
Cuero also took advantage of its depth, as nine players scored. Williams had 15 points, Gibbs and Varela each had 13, and David Leinen came of the bench and scored 11.
“We kind of extended our half-court stuff and we moved it to three-quarter,” Blank said. “We were just trying to play a little bit harder so we can get to our bench. We have a lot of great guys on our bench and I think that’s where we need to do a better job of being quicker with our bench. We’re probably the deepest team in district and we need to get to other teams’ benches and take advantage of it.”
The Gobblers realize there will be games where the 3-point shot isn’t falling, but they have other means of scoring.
“We’ve done a good job of being able to attack the basket when they’re not going down and it just kind of drags the game for us a little bit,” Blank said. “Tonight, they were falling and that’s the result.”
