Waelder cruises to 44-point victory

WAELDER — Even though the Wildcats who sit at the top of the district with Dime Box were taking on a Prairie Lea team who hasn’t won a district game all year, head coach Brandon Howard knows that anything can happen. Waelder in turn took care of business beating the Indians 75-31 to keep on top of District 30-1A with a 9-1 record.

“Main thing is keeping focus and not just coming out and going through the motions, but actually playing hard,” Howard said after the win. “I saw kids diving for the balls and we’re up by 30 plus and I still had kids diving for loose balls. That was really good.”

Waelder shot out to an 8-0 run before the visiting Indians was able to get a basket. After that, Aaron Wilson was instrumental in the 18-0 run as he either assisted on scored on all 18 points, dropping 10 points with two threes and getting three assists in the process.

“Aaron has been playing big for us all year long,” Howard said. “I expect him to continue playing big minutes and being a key part of this team.”

Wilson would end the night with 14 points on limited minutes due to the flow of the game.

After that run, Howard opted to put in his second and third units in, to get some vital varsity experience for his bench. It seemed everybody got playing time Tuesday night as 13 Wildcats were able to get their name on the score sheet with buckets.

“The second and third unit played real well,” Howard noted. “They gave a lot of energy and effort throughout the game.”

Waelder would finish the first quarter with a 28-6 lead.

Even with the second unit in, the Wildcats still continued to score at will, as players like Alex Reyna, Bobby Martinez, Abijah Alexander and Juan Martinez added points to increase their lead to 40-7 before Howard had his starters back out on the floor. With the starters in, the Wildcats would finish the half with four more points from Wilson and Steven Ewing each to go up 48-13.

Prairie Lea was able to score a bit more in the second half as Waelder backed off into a 2-3 zone. Even then the Wildcats scored another 20 points in the third with scores coming in from Justin Schilhab, Tracy Moore as well as Jose Nino and Alex Ontiveros to increase their lead to 68-21.

Howard dug deeper in the bench in the final quarter as Prairie Lea outscored the Wildcats third unit 10-7. Alexander hit another three midway through the final frame but the big bucket came from Jordan Perez who scored in the final minute, much to the delight of the Wildcat fans.

Waelder now moves to 9-1, tied at first with Dime Box who also won their game on Tuesday. The Wildcats travel to take on La Marque Premier Learning Academy (5-5) in hopes of keeping pace with Dime Box to fight for a district title.

“[We just got to] continue playing hard and never take teams for granted,” Howard said. “Give 110 every time you’re on the floor because you never know what could happen.”

Tipoff is scheduled at 7:15 p.m.