In a highly anticipated game that lived up to the hype, the Wimberley Texans Basketball team knocked off the rival #16 ranked Fredericksburg Battlin Billies in a thrilling 68-65 overtime victory Saturday afternoon.
With the win, the Texans sit in a prime position to force a tiebreaker between them and Billies for second place in the district.
In a game where the stakes were through the roof, Head Basketball Coach Mike Whitten knew this game was going to be a war especially with the history between the two teams.
“I pretty much expected exactly what happened,” Whitten said. “These guys were up for each other, they (Fredericksburg) are battling for an opportunity to get first in the district, we (Wimberley) are trying to tie this thing up...I knew it was going to be a battle. I knew it was going to be physical, both teams are rolling on the ground, getting technicals, and getting to be a dicey game no doubt.”
The Texans caught fire in the first quarter of play which saw Wimberley score 25 points including hitting five three-pointers.
For Coach Whitten, it was important for the team to jump on the Billies early in the game just like how Fredericksburg jumped on Wimberley in their first matchup.
“When we played down there,” Whitten said. “They jumped on us early and we were slow out of the box, and tonight that did not happen. We were on fire right off the bat and hitting shots.”
Despite leading 25-20 at the start of the second quarter, Fredericksburg stormed back as the Billies went on a 15-3 run to take a 32-28 lead before heading into halftime with a 39-32 lead.
The third quarter was punctuated by a stellar defensive effort by the Texans which held the Billies to just six points during the period.
“Hats off to them (Fredericksburg), to be honest,” Whitten said.
“They rebounded the ball really well and it was an absolute challenge to block them out very possession… grit and determination and they (Wimberley) flipped a switch and we got rebounds when we really needed them when it was crunch time. They took care of business when we had to have them (rebounds).”
Despite leading 56-49 in the fourth quarter, the Billies once again made another comeback to trim the lead down to 58-55.
After a Wimberley foul late in the game, the Texans were handed a technical foul to give Fredericksburg four free throw attempts which the Billies made three of them to tie the game up at 58-58.
Fredericksburg then took the lead at 60-58 before senior Cade Royal tied the game up at 60-60 with less than 10 seconds to play.
Royal then took a charge on the Billies final possession to send the game into overtime.
The Texans closed out the overtime period on a 4-0 run despite trailing 64-65 run to seal a 68-65 win.
Leading Wimberley in scoring was sophomore Miles Scheleder with 15 points, all of which came behind the arc.
The Texans also had three other players score in double figures with Zane Sutton-Edwards 13, Ethan Scheleder’s 10, and Jaxon Watts’ 10.
The win caps off an exhausting week for the Texans who went 2-1 in district play with a 54-36 win over the Davenport Wolves and a 70-52 loss to the Boerne Greyhounds.
Wimberley finishes up the regular season this week with a road trip to Canyon Lake before closing out the season at home against Bandera.
