Wildcats lose to Moulton, splitting series

WAELDER — The Wildcats could not climb out of the early 16-1 hole, losing to their district rivals, the Moulton Bobkatz, 57-42 on Tuesday night. Waelder came into the game ranked ninth in Class 1A while Moulton entered ranked 10th.

Moulton began the game on a 10-0 run before Waelder scored their first point. Down 16-1 with 3:00 left in the game, the Wildcats ended the quarter off a 9-0 run with scores from Carlos Reyes, Colby Thorne and Alex Reyna to cut the lead to 16-10. Reyes and Thorne ended the night with 10 points each, leading in scoring. Josh Jones-Miller, Jacovan Fields and Isaiah Jones-Miller finished with six points each.

Moulton added to their lead, outscoring the Wildcats 11-5 in the second quarter, 14-9 in the third to go up by 17 points before Waelder took a 16-14 advantage in the fourth to end the night with the 57-42 loss.

“Too many turnovers,” Waelder Head Coach Jacob Garcia explained. “Unforced turnovers into double teams. Whenever we did get the ball inside we missed the shot. That’s what it came down to.”

After the 15-point loss, both teams now have just one loss in District 30-1A, with four games left to determine a district championship.

Garcia knows the district title is still in play, especially since there are two weeks’ worth of games left on the schedule.

“They got games, we got games to play. Anything can happen,” he said.

Despite the loss, the first-year head coach was pleased with the effort shown.

“We could have rolled over and lost by 40. But we fought hard. Whenever they did go on they played hard, they played tough. If we just play with that fire like we’ve been playing, we’ll be all right.”

The Wildcats take on Round Top-Carmine on Friday, with tipoff scheduled at 6:15 p.m. In their previous meeting, Waelder knocked them off 87-39.