The Wimberley boys basketball team made the trip out to Bandera in a heated regular season finale.
With fans cheering and jeering, the game created a playoff atmosphere as both teams looked to head into the playoffs with a little momentum.
In the end, it was the Texans who came out on top.
Wimberley’s fast start in the first quarter was enough for the Texans to hold the Bulldogs at bay en route to a 90-65 victory.
The victory improves Wimberley’s record at 27-5 which is considered to be one of the winningest seasons in Texan basketball history.
For head coach Mike Whitten, it was a hard fought victory in a very physical game.
“We knew it was going to be tough coming in here,” Whitten said. “Bandera plays and fights hard. We were lucky to get out in front and control the pace, which was in our favor. We were able to pull off a win on the road. We’ve never played very well over here so to come down here and get a win like we did is big for us for potentially starting a couple of big playoff runs.”
Despite both teams having locked up their playoff seeds, both Wimberley and Bandera played a hard physical game with everything to lose.
“It was just kids playing hard,” Whitten. “We were expecting that. Sometimes they played harder than we did. Other times we played harder than they did. I’m really proud when they (Bandera) made a big run, then we made a big run right in response… So, really proud of responding to that adversi ty. It’s a great experience to battle through stuff like that.”
Senior Robbie Ritcher led the way in scoring with a career high 29 points followed by Hayes Pounds with 22 points. Miles Scheleder was third in scoring with 10 points.
Ritcher’s 13 rebounds also set him up with a double-double for the night.
With the Texans capturing second place in their district, Wimberley will square off with Gonzales in the Bi-District round of the playoffs.
Wimberley will look to end a three year skid of first round exits which has been a goal for this year’s team.
“I think this team is mentally tough, and I think they are going to get the job done,” Whitten said. “The expectation is to go in there, beat whoever we are going to play and they believe that. They are going to go in with that mentality, and it’s going to give us a great opportunity to win.”
The Bi-District game is set for Tuesday night at 7 p.m. from New Braunfels Canyon High School.
