On Tuesday the Wimberley Texans (18-14) had a chance to defend home court against the Young Men’s Leadership Academy Lions (14-15) in the first round of playoffs and did exactly that. They came out and made a statement in the first round of playoffs and won 88-47 to advance to the second round of playoffs and capture the Bi-District Championship.
Contributing to The Texans success was their excellent defensive play and senior guard Ethan Sharp’s scoring. He led the team with 27 points, all coming from the three point line.
“Defensively we gave them a lot of trouble, which led to a lot of easy baskets for us which got us going,” Head Coach Mike Whitten said. “[Sharp] with nine threes in the game is pretty special. We’re a different team when he shoots like that. It opens the offense up for us and allows everyone to contribute today. It was a great team win.”
The Texans wasted no time after giving up the first 2 baskets of the game to retake the lead and put the Lions away, going up 13-7 early in the first and forcing the Lions to call a timeout to slow the Texans down. After the timeout, the Texans didn’t let it slow them down as they continued to add to their first quarter lead, going up 24-13 by the end of the first.
In the second quarter the Texans started it with a 17-6 run leading the Lions to call another timeout. The seventeen early points led to an explosive 28-point quarter while they played stellar defense, only giving up ten points, which gave Wimberley a 52-23 lead at half.
In the third, the Texans kept up the intense defense and racked up the stops going back to back quarters only giving up ten points. Wimberley was only able to put up sixteen points on offense but due to their defense, they still won the quarter and added to their lead at 70-33 at the end of the third quarter.
In the final quarter, the game was all but over as the Lions would have to come back from a 37-point deficit which did not happen, as the Texans piled on 18 fourth quarter points while only giving up 14 to win the game 88-47.
Senior guard Ethan Sharpe piled on 9 three pointers while only shooting fifteen of them to lead the team with 27 points. Sophomore guard Paul Gumpert had a double-double, finishing the game with 26 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists.
On Friday, the Texans traveled to Victoria to play the Sweeny Bulldogs at the Victoria East High school gym for the second round of playoffs after their first round statement game. Sweeny however, also made a statement pulling off an unseen upset, winning 54-46 in the first round against Needville.
In the first quarter, both teams went back and forth with neither team being able to gain separation from each other and take control of the game, with Sweeny going up 17-16 after the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Texans took back the lead and made some separation from the Bulldogs, only giving up eleven points in the second quarter and scoring 18 of their own, that gave them a six point lead going into the half.
In the third, Sweeny came out with a spark and responded to the previous slow quarter by only allowing the Texans to score eleven points and going off for 21 of their own to regain the lead in the third and lead 49-45 going into a crucial last quarter that decides both teams’ seasons.
With both teams’ seasons on the line in the fourth quarter, each went shot for shot in a high scoring fourth quarter in which neither team could pull away. As the clock ticked, Wimberley was unable to secure the lead at the end of the game. The final score of 70-66 gave the Sweeny Bulldogs the win and ended the Texans playoff run in the second round.
The Wimberley Texans ended their season with a 19-15 record after a season of ups downs and very stressful tight win games. The Texans will look to have a massive jump in the off-season. They are a very young talented team, starting one senior all season, and only losing three senior players in total.
