BASKETBALL: Lady Apaches fall to La Grange in season opener

The first game of the 2021-22 basketball season for the Gonzales Lady Apaches showed Coach Michael Fowler his team has “a lot to work on to get to where we need to be when the district opens up.”

However, there also were several positives to take away from a 59-29 road loss to La Grange on Tuesday, Nov. 9.

While the Lady Apaches only shot 16.1 percent from the field, including 6-of-41 from two-point range and 3-of-15 from behind the three-point arc, they did outrebound La Grange, 40-36, and even forced 21 Lady Leopard turnovers.

“Our kids work hard, and right now, we are attacking each day with the mindset of getting better,” Fowler said.

The Lady Apaches fell behind early as La Grange was able to use a stifling defense and good transition play to build up a lead to 14-5 after the first period and 35-16 at the half. In the second half, the Lady Leopards outscored Gonzales, 24-13, though just 14-10 in the final period.

In comparison to the Lady Apaches, La Grange shot 51.1 percent from the field, including 21-of-34 from two-point range and 3-of-13 from three-point distance. Neither team shot well from the charity stripe as Gonzales made 8-of-16 free throws to 8-of-17 for La Grange. Each team committed 15 personal fouls.

The Lady Leopards held advantages in transition points (16-0), points off turnovers (22-8), second-chance points (14-9), points in the paint (36-6), assists (15-7), deflections (15-7), steals (14-7) and blocks (4-2).

“We started off really slow and La Grange jumped on us early,” Fowler said. “We are a young team this season, so we are trying to work out some kinks. At the same time, we play in a really tough district, so we try to schedule quality opponents.

“La Grange went to the third round of the playoffs last season and we knew they would be a problem. They are extremely athletic and forced us to shoot the ball poorly. Add that with the fact that we didn't do a good job of slowing their offense down and you get a poor result on the scoreboard.”

Senior Delaini Seger-Gordon led all Lady Apaches with nine points and added six rebounds and two steals, while freshman Bella Aguero had six points (all on treys) and four rebounds. Madison York had eight rebounds and three steals to lead Gonzales in those categories, while Macy Sample had three points and five rebounds.

Aysia Grant had 21 points and 16 rebounds for La Grange to lead all scorers, while Keslyn Davis had 14 points, six steals and six assists and Camille Gonzalez had 10 points.