The Lady Antlers plowed past another 26-5A basketball opponent when they beat Boerne Champion 59-45 before the Tivy faithful Friday.
“I’m extremely proud of these girls. They have a lot of grit,” said Tivy coach Christy Dill after watching her team push its district record to 9-2, and overall mark to 24-5.
Champion fell to 3-7 and 10-20 as Tivy swept the season series, and the Lady Chargers had few answers against Tivy with the exception of pressuring early and managing a mild flurry late when the game was well under Tivy’s control.
“Champion was doing a good job of pressuring the ball and rebounding against us when the game started, but we challenged our kids to attack the boards better and directed them to keep two hands on the ball. They accepted the challenge and began creating windows of opportunity,” Dill said.
Emma Schumacher, who finished with six points, got Tivy off on the right foot 25 seconds into the game with a bucket. Soloya Gorham, Leilah Rodriguez and Kyra Wheatfall had Tivy doubling up Champion 8-4 with 3:54 left in the first quarter.
Champion managed to make the score 9-7 with 2:55 to go, but Wheatfall hit a pair of field goals, and Addie Kincaid had one make that boosted Tivy in front 16-7 when second period action tipped off.
Wheatfall continued Tivy’s blitz in the second quarter where she registered 11 of her team high 22 points. Wheatfall benefitted off assists from Rodriguez and Schumacher during the period. Rodriguez, Kincaid and Schumacher also dropped in points in the second. Rodriguez had seven at game’s end and Kincaid five. Gorham complimented Wheatfall’s two-figure scoring with 11 points of her own.
Contributions by Wheatfall, Rodriguez and the rest of the team went beyond scoring, according to Dill.
“Kyra was calling out teammates’ names when on offense, she rotated well and did a great job of pressuring the ball defensively. Leilah does, and did, a good job of picking the right moments to pass the ball and communicates so well with her teammates,” Dill said.
Wheatfall finished with four rebounds, two deflections, two steals and one assist. Rodriguez had five assists to share honors with Schumacher also at five dishes, and deflected four balls in addition to having four steals. Gorham’s efforts resulted in seven rebounds, three assists, three deflects and four steals. Schumacher threw in five rebounds with her handouts, had four deflected balls and made two steals. Kincaid went for two rebounds, and the same number of assists and deflections plus made one steal. Victoria also grabbed a pair of boards.
During the first half, Champion’s pressure prevented Tivy from consistently working the ball inside to its tallest player, Syrie Nicolas, but after intermission offensive adjustments allowed Nicolas to pocket all eight of her points. Nicolas did control the backboards with nine rebounds and assisted on two buckets as well as deflecting two passes.
Nicolas’ final basket gave Tivy its largest lead of 24 points, 57-33, with 5:49 remaining in the contest.
The final push for district playoff seedings looms big for Tivy which was on the road Tuesday at SA Wagner that is ranked fourth compared to Tivy’s 15th spot in the latest TABC 5A poll. Friday the Lady Antlers host 16th ranked Comal Pieper.
TIVY ------------------------ 16 17 22 4 -- 59
BOERNE CHAMPION -- 7 10 15 13 -- 45
Tivy – Kyra Wheatfall 7-2-2-22, Soloya Gorham 5-0-1-11, Syrie Nicolas 4-0-0-8, Leilah Rodriguez 2-0-3-7, Emma Schumacher 1-1-1-6, Addie Kincaid 1-1-0-5
Champion – Sommer 2-2-0-10, Winn 4-0-2-10, Givet 1-1-1-6, Burk 2-0-2-6, Koepke 1-0-3-5, Ramon 1-0-1-3, Darter 0-1-0-3, Ramirez 0-0-2-2,
Halftime: Tivy 33, Champion 17
FTA: Tivy 12, Champion 15
FTM: Tivy 7 (58-percent), Champion 11 (73-percent)
3’s: Tivy – Wheatfall (2), Kincaid, Schumacher (1); Champion – Sommer (2), Darter, Givet (1)