Lady Apaches’ defense stalls Calhoun’s offense in win

The Gonzales Lady Apaches returned home from the Brazos tournament to host the Calhoun Sandies Tuesday, Dec. 17.

Gonzales routed the Sandies, 52-30, and secured its 12th win of the season.

The Lady Apaches and Calhoun kept the game close in the first half with Gonzales trailing, 18-17, but quickly turned things around in the second half.

“We knew we had to come out and make our runs and play the basketball. We know how to play. We got a little fed up in the first once we started playing the basketball. We know playing slow, going down and kind of getting everybody touches. That's when we opened up the lead,” Senior Bella Aguero said.

Aguero scored 30 points on Calhoun; the second most points scored in a game in her Gonzales career.

The Lady Apaches defense held Calhoun to 12 points in the second half and recording 19 steals in the win.

“Kudos to Jordyn [Gonzales]. Jordyn, my little sophomore. She came out and she put her head down, and she knew what she had to do. She knew she had to bring the table, and she shut everyone down. I'm proud of Jordyn,” Aguero said.

The Lady Apaches dominated in the rebounds recording 41; juniors Jayda Glass and Isabella Ikard led the team with 10 rebounds in the win over Calhoun.

“So gotta thank my defensive coach Behal because she really whips us into shape, and we're really good at communicating on defense, so we were really able to get a stop in that second half,” Glass said.

Lady Apaches head basketball coach Mark Belford was proud with his coaching staff preparing the defensive plan in the second half.

“Coach Behal, coach Cantu, they do a great job working with our defensive kids. You know, we just kind of put in some schemes, and they really, really been working those kids, and defense is where we hold our hats on, because we know we need defense in order to be successful, especially in our district,” Belford said.

The Lady Apaches have two more games remaining against Smithville and Victoria West before the start of district play against La Vernia Friday, Jan. 3, and the Lady Apaches have their mind set focused on the last two non-district games.

“Just try to keep our head down and keep working and kind of do what we do, what we know, what to do, and just keep working and hopefully make an upset up and here in the district,” Agureo said.

“So the last two games we have they are pretty good competition. But, we've learned that we could really play with anybody, no matter who they are, how big the school is, you know, we know that as long as we work together, we're gonna be able to beat whoever we need to beat,” Glass said.

The Smithville game tips off at 3:15 p.m. and the Victoria West game tips off at 1:30 p.m.

--STATS--

POINTS: B. Aguero: 30 points, J. Glass: seven points, Syrenity Smith and Ikard: four points, Amaya Ibarra: three points, and Kilee Schwausch: two points

REBOUNDS: J. Glass and I. Ikard: 10 rebounds, J. Gonzales: six rebounds, B. Aguero: five rebounds Kianna White: three rebounds, McKenzie Gillette and Skcarlett Cerda: two rebounds and S. Smith and Zniyah Washington: one rebound

ASSISTS: S. Smith and K. Schwausch: three assists, B. Aguero: two assists and Jordyn Gonzales and S. Cerda: one assists

STEALS: B. Aguero: six steals, K. Schwausch: five steals, J. Gonzales and I. Ikard: three steals and S. Cerda: two steals.

BLOCKS: J. Gonzales: two blocks and J. Glass, I. Ikard and A. Ibarra: one block