Whenever Boerne plays Fredericksburg, anything can happen and a few crazy things happened in Tuesday’s girls basketball game at Greyhound Gym, like the Lady Billies making separate halfcourt shots to end the first and second quarters.
Fred’s ability to make those two long-range 3s had them leading the entire first half and on the verge of an upset against Lady Greyhounds but the Boerne girls righted the ship in the second half.
After trailing by five points at halftime, the Lady Hounds tied it by the end of the third quarter and then pulled away in the fourth quarter to record the 45-38 victory in a battle of the No. 2 and No. 5 4A girls teams in the state.
Boerne’s win wraps up this year’s district title with a perfect district record and it’s also the first sweep of Fred by the BHS girls since the 2015 season.
Boerne ends the regular season at 30-1 and 12-0 in 27-4A. They open the playoffs Monday against Memorial at Edgewood Gym, 7 p.m.
Averi Aaron helped lead the comeback in the second half and said it was great to honor the seniors, sweep the Billies and secure the district title all in one night.
“It means a lot; we beat them in their house for the first time in eight years earlier this year, so that was a long time coming and now it’s on to bigger things,” she said.
Both teams struggled early on and it was 5-5 near the end of the first quarter, but Fredericksburg’s Rilyn Grona heaved a shot from just inside halfcourt at the buzzer that swished in to give the Billies an 8-5 lead.
Boerne had four turnovers and missed seven 3s in that opening period. They started to shoot better in the second quarter, but the Billies were still up 19-17 late in the period before Grona tossed in another circus shot, this one from beyond halfcourt that dropped in at the halftime buzzer to put Fred ahead at the break, 22-17.
“If they don’t make those 3s, they only have 16 points at halftime, so we were playing great defense, but we couldn’t get anything going offensively in the first half,” BHS coach Amy Ruede said.
Fredericksburg was in a man-to-man defense and was double and triple teaming Aaron whenever she caught a pass on the block. Ruede said they made some adjustments at halftime and they also starting knocking down shots.
“We only took three shots in the paint in the first half, that’s not us, so that was our goal, getting the ball in the paint in the second half,” the coach said. “When we stay true to us, good things happen and I felt like in the second half, we stayed true to us.”
Aaron basically took over in the third and scored 11 of the team’s 15 points. She also had an assist to Abby Smith late in the third period that gave Boerne its first lead of the game at 30-29 with 1:07 left in the quarter.
Fred’s Ella Hartman answered with a 3 and the Billies were back on top 32-30, but Aaron scored the final two points of the stanza with 25 seconds remaining and it was tied at 32-32 and Boerne never trailed from there.
Without any halfcourt 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, the Billies faded and had its lowest offensive output of the night with 6 points in the final period, while the Boerne girls tallied 13.
The Billies started to foul and BHS made enough free throws to keep the Billies at bay. They went to the stripe 10 times in the fourth quarter and knocked in 7 foul shots, with the last four points coming at the line from Jenna Ruede to seal the district title.
Aaron finished with 22 points, Smith tallied 10, Jaime Ruede netted 7, Jenna Ruede scored all 5 of her points at the line and Chloe Donnell hit a free throw.
1ST ROUND PLAYOFFS
Boerne girls vs. Memorial at Edgewood Gym on Monday, Feb. 13, 7 p.m.
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