The 2023-2024 Boys Basketball season began last week. The team returns two players from last year’s team with nine new players from sub-Varsity. As to be expected, with so many new players, this team is going through the four stages of team development which are forming, storming, mourning, and performing!!!!! We are currently 4-4 and improving on a game-by-game basis.

vs. Katy Taylor & Houston Christian

The season started with a close hard-fought loss at Katy Taylor 51-45. Four days later we played the number-one ranked private school in Texas, Houston Christian. The atmosphere was electric with a very good crowd! We lost 84-69 but battled the entire game.

LA JOYA, TX TOURNAMENT PLAY

vs. TMI-Episcopal

This weekend, the team traveled to La Joya, Texas for a four-day tournament. The first game in the tournament was against San Antonio’s TMI-Episcopal. TMI shot the ball extremely well to start the game and got out to a 10-point lead early. But we stayed in striking distance and in the second half, we chipped away at the lead and reduced it to four points but ultimately lost by 10.

vs. Juarez-Lincoln

In our second game we played Juarez-Lincoln, which was a very good bounce-back game for us, allowing us to secure our first victory and get a lot of playing time for the entire team.

vs. Weslaco-East

The next day, we played Weslaco-East, where we started to conform into a team to beat a very capable, hot-shooting team 54-43. That victory placed us in the platinum bracket, first place in our pool, and put us in the top bracket of the tournament, where we would compete for the Tournament Championship.

vs. Clear Lake

Later that night, we played Clear Lake in our first platinum bracket game. It was a hotly contested game that came down to the last possession. We fought extremely hard and it was an extremely physical game, but we fell by two points, 57-55.

vs. Palmview

The next day, we played Palmview for the right to play for 5th place out of 32 teams. We took care of business relatively easily 63-37,  which allowed us once again to get valuable experience for the entire team.

vs. Laredo United

In the 5th place game, we played Laredo United. They were a very well-coached and sharpshooting team. We started hot in the first quarter with a 10-point lead, but United fought back and cut our lead to 2 by halftime.

After halftime, we methodically pushed our lead up to as high as 18 points in the third quarter, through tough defense and focused execution on offense. United made a furious comeback, cutting our lead to six with under a minute to play. But we persevered with key defensive stops and great passing for layups at the end of the game.

The high scorer for the game was Joaquin Andrews with 16 points, playing an overall efficient game. Wes Wohlfahrt scored 11 points and played the senior leader role with key steals and assists down the stretch. Shia Francis contributed 10 points and showed his immense athleticism for such a young sophomore. JD Cheeves scored nine points but contributed multiple steals and helped disrupt their offense in the 4th quarter, which proved to be critical to the victory. Finally, Vasili Fakaris chipped in with seven points. Although Jalon Jefferson and Elliot Harlan did not score many points, their hustle, aggressiveness, and competitive nature really helped us win this game and earn 5th place at the La Joya Tournament.

This coming week, we will continue our team-building journey with two key games this week before Thanksgiving. We play on Monday, 11/20 at 1 pm at Stratford vs. Cy Ranch. Please come out and support the team. Tuesday, 11/21, we play at Katy Jordan at 12 pm.