GONZALES APACHES

Lady Apaches’ defense overwhelms Poteet

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The Gonzales Lady Apaches allowed just nine points in last Friday’s 56-9 victory over the Poteet Lady Aggies to stay unbeaten in district play. The Lady Apaches made their debut on the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches’ state poll last week, ranked 22nd in Class 4A. After beating Navarro on Tuesday, Gonzales followed that up with a strong defensive effort on Friday at home against the Lady Aggies.

“I told them, no matter what happened today, we weren’t going to just go out there and run around,” Gonzales head coach Lance Butler said after the game. “We were going to try to execute defensively and offensively every time on the floor so that we didn’t lose focus.”

After a fast start, the Lady Apaches opted to go deep in their bench to get valuable playing time for everyone by subbing all five starters our and putting in five fresh players. The strategy allowed for 10 of their 11 players to come away with points.

“We have a really strong first five and it’s good that they can get us up and get everyone in,” Hayley Sample said. “it builds everyone’s confidence when they get in there and get to contribute. That experience out there makes people play harder and work harder.”

The Lady Apaches ended the first quarter up 15-2 and later end the half up 32-5.

“I think we played really well for getting in points and getting people in,” Peyton Ruddock

said. “We all played pretty much decent, I would say.”

The focus remained on executing plays, as the Lady Apaches did not let up, outscoring Poteet 12-2 in the third quarter and 12-2 again in the fourth quarter.

“[Thursday] we had a long practice where we worked on executing plays perfectly,” Sample said. “Today we got a lot of opportunities to run the plays and make sure we did it like we did it in practice.

“They think I’m being hard on them on practice and I’m not,” Butler added. “Come game time, I need everybody to come and contribute as if they are a starter. Everybody’s got to know their spot. If there’s a foul issue or an injury, they come in and there’s absolutely no drop off. I think that saw that tonight, not just as a sub here or there but as an entire unit coming in, there’s no drop off between the first team and the second team. Come playoff time, we’re going to need everybody to contribute.”

Despite being ranked at the time, the Lady Apaches know that there’s still work to be done in order to achieve their postseason goals.

“I think we’re going to have to continue to keep working hard and not let the rankings or the long, tough practices get to our head,” Shelby Davis said. “The way that we’re playing now is something that we haven’t seen from each other and it’s really cool to see. We just need to keep focusing on building.”

Earlier this week, the Lady Apaches were omitted from the TABC Class 4A rankings, despite remaining unbeaten. Gonzales continued their win streak by beating Pleasanton on Tuesday 38-36 to stay on top of District 30-4A with a 5-0 record. They host San Antonio Brooks (0-5) on Friday to end the first half of district play.

District 30-4A boys hoops
as of Jan. 16 W L %
Gonzales 5 0 1.000
Geronimo Navarro 5 1 0.833
La Vernia 3 2 0.600
Cuero 2 3 0.400
Pleasanton 2 3 0.400
Poteet 1 4 0.200
SA Brooks Academy 0 5 0.000

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