Foul calls doom Apaches in 12-point loss

GONZALES — The Apaches are in a hole in district and head coach Derek Williams knows this. In previous years, teams would jump on Gonzales and the Apaches would fail to recover, resulting in lopsided defeats.

But Tuesday night, even after 33 personal fouls and two technical calls were called on the home team, even after the opposing team shot 51 free throw attempts, even after four players fouled out, the Apaches fought but ultimately loss to the Canyon Lake Hawks 59-47.

“This was the first game where they jumped on us like most teams do because they just want to get rid of us and then we fight back,” Williams noted. “And then next thing you know they jump on us again and then we fight back. And like I said, there was a point in time where we’re on the free-throw line and we’re down by three and then everything happens and even then they got up close to 20 and we still fought back to close the game.”

“[Our kids] continue to fight and they’re just representing this town, it’s a tough town, and a hard working town and our kids are finally getting that feel. There are some kids in [the locker room] that are crying tonight and that’s the first time that I’ve seen that in the two years that I’ve been here.”

Fans watching the game grew accustomed to the sound of the whistle early on as the Apaches put Canyon Lake in the bonus early, meaning seven fouls were called already with 4:55 left in the first quarter. Only 3:05 of game time was played before bonus free throws were awarded. Due to the foul trouble, Williams had to dig into his bench to get some minutes for his backups.

“I really think that for the first time in a long time we started to play aggressive,” he said. “It’s the first time since district that we have finally got the confidence to extend the defense a little bit and I thought that we were the aggressor. With that being said, I still can’t explain how my guards who are penetrating and driving don’t get any calls and [Canyon Lake] can’t even go down the court without having a hand on them.

“I take hats off to Canyon Lake, I thought they played a good game but I really thought we brought it to them tonight.”

In the first quarter the Apaches were called for 10 fouls while Canyon Lake were called for five.

Meanwhile, players like Devin Polk and Johnathan Banda stepped up in the post to help out sophomore Trevion McNeil while Roger Reyna only played eight minutes due to being in foul trouble.

“I thought Devin Polk had a career night,” Williams said. “I thought ‘Big’ Banda had a great night as well. But I thought Polk dud tremendously well on the inside.”

Polk played 10 minutes, getting two points and a one rebound. But his impact was seen outside the stat sheet, as he was a force on defense.

Down three early in the second, the Hawks would end the half on a 6-2 run, three of those points made from the six attempted free throws, to give Canyon Lake the 24-17 lead. At the end of the half the Apaches were called for 14 fouls while the Hawks were called for nine.

Starting guard Aaron Hunt was another victim of the foul calls as he sat for long periods of time due to his foul trouble. Hunt was one of the four players who fouled out. Before doing so he scored 11 points with one rebound and three steals. As he drove to the basket, he was only able to get four free-throw attempts despite getting knocked around in the paint.

The third quarter was more of the same, although Canyon Lake didn’t get to the bonus until late in the frame. Beforehand, the Apaches and the Hawks matched each other point-for-point before scores from Cody Calzado, Banda, Polk and Jason Velasquez-Banda helped cut the lead. Matthew Velasquez-Banda scored two and a free throw then Trevion McNeil hit the put back on a missing free-throw attempt to cut the lead to three. Unfortunately, Polk was called for his fifth foul and the Apaches’ post players could not get a rebound from missed free throws, resulting in a small four-point run to end the quarter down 39-32.

At the start of the fourth, trouble arose with referees calling technical fouls on Alyas Ramirez and later head coach Derek Williams.

With 7:48 left in the game, Ramirez was called for a foul, putting Hawks’ Rory Preiss to the free-throw line since they were in the bonus. After the official had a conversation with Ramirez, he called a technical for unsportsmanlike conduct. Later as a second official was talking with Williams the third official called a technical on the head coach from across the court, again for unsportsmanlike conduct, giving the Hawks a total of six free throws. The next possession, Hunt was called for his fifth foul, sending the Hawks again to the free-throw line as Canyon Lake extended their lead to 44-32, making five of their last eight free-throw attempts.

Their biggest lead of the night came lat in the quarter when the Hawks had a 54-37 lead after another free throw was made with Roger Reyna becoming the fourth Apache to foul out after Ramirez fouled out minutes beforehand. But even with playing young players, the Apaches finished the night on a 10-5 run to lose 59-47.

“Those [young] guys played a ton of minutes,” Williams said. “We played the whole bench tonight, everybody had maximum minutes tonight, everybody had an opportunity to try to contribute but I just felt like those young kids, those sophomores that are now juniors are now coming to age where they’re getting to be pretty battle tested as far as what’s been going on to us in district and like I said the two juggernauts in district, the Wimberleys and the La Vernias, they’re so much bigger than we are and I think tonight for the first time we’ve stepped up and said that we’re just not going to get pushed around anymore and I just thought that Devin Polk and Big Banda, I just thought that they did well coming off the bench to help Trevion and to help us when we lost Roger early.”

The loss dropped the Apaches to 1-6 in district, three games back from the Hawks who hold the final playoff spot at 4-3. With five games to go, the Apaches will need to pull off some upsets in order to make noise in District 26-4A.

“You’re going to see this second half [of district] a lot of young guys playing a little bit more to help us contributed more,” Williams admitted.

The Apache head coach noted that earlier in the season he had to play his more experienced kids because of turnover issues, but now that the youngsters are improving he’s ready to rely on them a bit more. Getting this varsity-level experience is crucial for this young core of players.

Gonzales is looking to fight their way back to playoff contention as they take on Yoakum on the road tonight. The Bulldogs are 2-4, coming off a bye. In their last contest, Gonzales lost at home 63-47.

Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.