It is pretty well accepted that to be successful one must be able to finish games. Does not make much difference how well you played before. The Tigers are struggling to do just that. At the present it has been the fateful fourth. It does not take much. In talking with Coach Swannack before the last game, he said early on they realized they would not be able to stay in high-scoring games. So their strategy would be to keep the scores low so they would be in the running when it came down to the end. They have been doing that but it is the finish that usually does them in. Their 57-43 loss to Alamo Heights and a 47-34 loss to Veterans Memorial attest to that.
These two losses are close to doing the Tigers in when it comes to the playoffs. They are 4-7 in district with five games to play. They trail fourth by four. The good news is four represent the bottom half and winnable. The Tigers have already played the top three teams twice.
The Alamo Heights game is exhibit A. They are presently in third place. The Tigers had the Mules down 8-3 after one. Even though DS slipped a little they still went in at half only trailing 18-19. A good third gave the Tigers their chance at the finish as they still trailed by one 33-34. With seven minutes left the Tigers were up by one only to watch the wheels come off. Coach said three defensive lapses and a couple of turnovers in a three-minute span was too much to overcome.
As it turned out, Veterans had just beaten Boerne Champion for the second time and was in first place making the game a formidable task as well. VM played a smothering defense all night making it very difficult to get shots off much less open ones. However, the Tigers played tough on defense as well pressuring VM into rushing shots making their accuracy off too.
Layne Herington, who had the hot hand (20) against AH started hot with seven. Along with Maddox Bloomgren's basket carved out a 9-4 lead but it melted away in the last three minutes to trail after one 9-11. Jack Williams, Davis Budge, Dylan Ducharme and Cade Brunson contributed points in the second to hold a 19-17 advantage at the half.
A terrible drought occurred in the third. Only a basket by Williams with 14 seconds remaining prevented a shutout as VM pulled ahead 27-21. VM opened with a 5-0 run and widened the gap to eleven (34-23). Williams' trey would bring it back to six (28-34) but that would be as close as it would get as VM would feather their nest with the fouling process. VM was 13-16 in the fourth alone. The Tigers were 7-18 from two, 4-14 from three and 8-12 from the line. The 17 turnovers did not help.
Vs AH: Herington 20, Bloomgren 8, Brunson 5, Isaac Rivera 3, Budge 3, Williams 3, Ducharme 1.
Vs VM: Herington 12, Williams 9, Bloomgren 5, Ducharme 4, Budge 3, Brunson 1.
