“Ten points in two quarters,” Belton’s boys basketball coach said, shaking his head. “We really just crumbled from the second quarter on.”
The Tigers scored 19 points in the first quarter and only 18 the rest of the way as they lost 49-37 to Killeen Shoemaker on Tuesday night at Tiger Gym, damaging Belton’s chances of catching the Grey Wolves for District 12-5A’s fourth and final playoff berth.
“I really felt like everything we were doing right in the first quarter - going after rebounds, setting good screens and getting our guys open - it seems like we lost that aggressiveness and lost what we were doing,” Osborn said. “And I didn’t know how to get it back.”
The Tigers (9-18 overall, 3-7 12-5A) did take control of the game early. Forwards Michael Huddleston and Jeff Lepak did the brunt of the work inside for Belton, combining for 11 points and six rebounds as the Tigers took a 19-11 lead by the end of the opening quarter.
“Belton did a good job,” Shoemaker coach Marc Minatrea said. “They really hit the boards on us in the first quarter. Their kids were ready to play and ours weren’t.”
But the Grey Wolves, who trailed 16-4 at one point in the first quarter, came alive after the first. They held Huddleston scoreless the rest of the game and allowed only four more points by Lepak, two on free throws.
“Early on we weren’t doing what we were supposed to be doing,” Minatrea said. “We weren’t blocking out and they were getting rebounds in the first half. (In the) second half we blocked out, allowing us to get points in transition.”
Indeed, after being outrebounded 11-5 by Belton in the first quarter, the Grey Wolves finished with a 32-28 edge and turned several of those rebounds into fast-break opportunities.
Even though the Grey Wolves outscored Belton 11-2 in the third quarter to take a 33-29 lead, they didn’t put the game away until midway through the fourth. Belton’s Eric Braeuer drained a 3-point shot and made a three-point play that cut the lead to 37-35 early in the fourth.
But with 4:12 left to play, Braeuer, who led Belton with 11 points, picked up his fourth foul and Osborn had little choice but the sit him for a while. Jade Allen converted both free throws to make it 39-35.
Jacob Whitman tried to answer right back by trying a 3, but it failed and Shoemaker went into a keepaway offense, which featured a lot of passing, some dribbling and very little shooting.
But when the Wolves did shoot, it was usually a very open shot. That was the case with Keith Vinson, who found himself wide open on the wing and drained a 3 to put the Grey Wolves up 42-35 just under the three-minute mark.
The Tigers never recovered, as shot after shot failed before Braeuer ended up fouling out with 1:20 to play.
“It’s one of those situations when things aren’t going right, you don’t want to hope things in,” Osborn said. “You don’t hope something goes in for you; you want to go out there and take it. Instead of going strong we settled outside and hoped it would happen for us. When you hope, it usually doesn’t go your way.”
The Grey Wolves (14-15, 6-4) took a three-game lead for the final playoff spot with four games to play.
“We knew we need this,” Minatrea said. “We knew if we beat (College Station) A&M Consolidated, Belton and (Copperas) Cove, who are all behind us, we would likely earn a playoff spot and could possibly end up in third.”
While the playoffs aren’t out of the picture yet for Belton, Osborn knows the Tigers are in a tough spot.
“Even before tonight we knew we were in a tough spot,” he said. “But one win could easily take care of that. Now we put in ourselves in a situation where we have to win all four. I’m not really worried about the playoffs. I just want to see some good basketball from here on out. I want the guys to play confident, play strong and play good ball. If we do that we may be back in the playoff hunt."
mhood@temple-telegram.com
