NIXON-SMILEY MUSTANGS

Nixon-Smiley survives free-throw frenzy

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NIXON — Fouling out all five of your starters is one thing. But to do so while watching your rivals attempt 49 free throws can be even more frustrating. Yet somehow, the Nixon-Smiley Lady Mustangs were able to survive the free-throw frenzy, knocking off their district rivals, the Stockdale Lady Brahmas, 39-37 at home last Friday, Jan. 11

“Five starters fouling out and you tell me that we’re going to hold on to win a ball game, I will say you’re crazy,” Nixon-Smiley head coach Doug Boatright said after the win. “But honestly, with that second and third group of girls that got in there, they battled, one thing that we’ve been trying to instill back in the girls basketball program was a little bit of Lady Mustang pride and they definitely showed Lady Mustang pride because they were fighting tooth and nail and they didn’t want to give up the victory, especially with Stockdale being our rival 12 miles down the road, it was a big one and those girls battled their rear ends off and I’m super proud.”

At the end of the third quarter, Nixon-Smiley led 27-17, but Stockdale was already in the bonus, shooting free throws since late in the third with 2:38 left. The Lady Brahmas were in the double bonus by 7:19 left in the game. Fortunately for Nixon-Smiley, Stockdale shot 20 of 49, compared to Nixon-Smiley’s 15 of 27, from the free throw line.

“I think we try to do too much,” Boatright explained. “That was our mentality, to come out and be the aggressor. But what we’re still trying to learn is we need to know, ‘hey, I need to dial it in and kick it into fifth gear,’ then, ‘OK I need to dial it back down to second gear, let me just move my feet and keep them from getting to the basket.’”

“Tonight, there was a lot of positive,” he continued, “I know the foul situation, but there was a lot of positive on the defensive end with that to where we saw girls picking it up and pressuring and they know when to back it off and just play defense, let [Stockdale] make the mistake. Some of our girls have the tendency to be overly aggressive and that’s where we had the early foul trouble.”

Going 11 deep in the bench means significant minutes being played by the younger varsity athletes. Holding off Stockdale showed Boatright that if need be, he can call upon his bench to perform.

One player Boatright gave props to was Gracelyn Mejia who despite early foul trouble had some success on both ends of the court.

“She was our last starter to foul out and she played a heck of a game,” he touted. “She got some great rebounds for us, she got some big steals, she hit some crucial free throws for us down the stretch, she had the ‘and-one’ shortly before she fouled out.”

Boatright also touted Kiara Andrada’s defensive prowess in the game trying to take away Stockdale’s top scorer.

The win was an important one for a Nixon-Smiley team hoping to get back into the playoffs. District 27-3A is a particularly tough one. In this week’s rankings, Karnes City (4-0) sits at eighth in TABC Class 3A. Poth (4-0) is ranked 11th while Luling (2-2) fell out the rankings but was just 25th last week. And with a loss to Yoakum early on in district, the Lady Mustangs can’t afford to lose any more games against the bottom half of the standings.

“This [win] gets our backs off the wall,” Boatright noted. “I tell the girls, ‘we control our own destiny. If we play Lady Mustang basketball the way we’re capable of, we’ll be fine.’”

Nixon-Smiley took a 76-30 loss to #11 Poth on Tuesday, dropping the Lady Mustangs to 1-3. Nixon-Smiley hosts Luling on Friday for a 6:15 p.m. tipoff before traveling to Karnes City to take on the #8 Lady Badgers.

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District 27-3A boys hoops
as of Jan. 17
W L %
Poth 4 0 1.000
Karnes City 4 0 1.000
Luling 2 2 0.500
Yoakum 1 3 0.250
Nixon-Smiley 1 3 0.250
Stockdale 0 4 0.000

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