Lady Apaches slide past Lady Mustangs in county faceoff

The Gonzales Lady Apaches went on the road to square off against their in-county neighbors, the Nixon-Smiley Lady Mustangs, Friday, Nov. 15.
The Lady Apaches started the game strong, but the Lady Mustangs quickly made the game close to close out the first half.
Gonzales rebounded in the third quarter, outscoring the Lady Mustangs, 19-4.
“We executed a little bit better there in the second half. You know, we’ve got a lot of new kids kind of back, so we’re just kind of ruffling and just kind of getting used to what we wanted to run. So once they kind of figured it out a little bit in the second half, they relaxed some, and so we were able to kind of pull away,” Lady Apaches head basketball coach Mark Belford said.
The Lady Apaches beat the Lady Mustangs, 48-32, and Nixon-Smiley head girls basketball Trevor Johnson coach knew this was going to be touch match, but was not disappointed by his team’s performance.
“I felt like our girls fought pretty hard. We had one really bad quarter, and it really got us, and that's the only thing that hurt us. I think we had three really good quarters and one really bad one. So we're just in the process of putting four quarters together again. Our leadership was good tonight. We don't quit. We keep fighting. So I think our third quarter is what really hurt us.” Johnson said.
The Lady Mustangs will hit the road Tuesday, Nov. 19 for a game against Skidmore-Tynan and Johnson they are very similar to Gonzales.
“Skidmore is going to be a tough team, kind of similar to what we're seeing tonight. They can shoot the ball really well. I think, you know, tonight, we did a good job of shut down one, one good player. We just got to do a better job of collectively helping as a team, because Skidmore has a lot of girls that can score the ball. So I think if we make a few adjustments, I think we can be a little bit more competitive than tonight.” Johnson said.
The Lady Apaches will returned home Tuesday against Long Creek and Belford said he is going to take it one step at time.
The Lady Apaches will hit the road Thursday, Nov. 21 for the Seguin Tournament and the Lady Mustangs travel to Yorktown for their tournament.