It was as clean sweep for the Boerne High girls basketball team this year against Fredericksburg.
The Boerne girls defeated Fred at their place in the first round of district, took care of them at Greyhound Gym in the second round and then in their biggest game of the year, the Lady Hounds beat the Battlin’ Billies last Saturday in Kingsville for the regional title.
BHS won Saturday’s Region IV-4A championship tilt, 49-40, and is headed to the 4A state tournament set for this week in San Antonio.
The Lady Hounds (35-1) will play in the Alamodome Friday in the 4A state semifinals against Sunnyvale (32-6) at 3 p.m. The winner plays the winner of Glen Rose (391) and Waco La Vega (36-5) Saturday at 7 p.m. for the state title.
It’s the second time in three seasons that the Boerne girls have advanced to the state semis.
Boerne coach Amy Ruede said they stayed patient against Fredericksburg and stuck with the game plan.
“They believe in what we do, and they don’t try to go away from Boerne basketball,” she said. Saturday’s tussle was a typical Boerne-Fred game that went back and forth at least early on. After all, it’s the third year in a row that the Hill Country rivals have met for the right to advance to the state tournament.
Boerne had the upper hand early Saturday, but Fred opened up a 13-8 lead in the opening quarter, however Jamie Ruede and Averi Aaron made 4 consecutive free throws and the Billies advantage was down to a point at 13-12 by the end of the period.
An 8-0 run by Boerne to start the second stanza put them back on top at 20-13. Later in the quarter after a 2-point bucket by Fred, Jamie Ruede nailed a 3 and Averi Aaron hit a 2 and the BHS advantage was double-digits at 25-15 with 2:30 left until halftime, but the Billies made a strong push to end the quarter.
Fredericksburg got to the line and made 6 straight free throws and then hit a 2-pointer for an 8-0 spurt and the Boerne edge was down to 2 points at 25-23, however Aaron converted an inbounds play for a basket with one second left that gave the Lady Hounds a 27-23 advantage at the break.
It was back and forth in that third quarter as Jenna Ruede hit a 3 for a 37-29 lead with less than a minute but Fred was never far behind. The Billies closed out the third with a 5-0 spurt and had trimmed the Boerne advantage to just three at 37-34 as the game went into the final quarter.
Abby Smith stepped up big for Boerne in the fourth and hit a pair of 3s to give the Lady Hounds some breathing room.
“Abby is our X-factor, they double and triple Averi, they double Jamie, those two get all the attention and Abby has seen the fruits of that and she has come through for us clutch in big situations,” Coach Ruede said.
After the second Smith 3, Boerne was leading 45-38, but a Billies bucket cut it to 5 points at 45-40 with 4:00 left, however those would be Fred’s final points of the season.
The Lady tallied the next four points to open up a 9-point lead.
Fred’s free throw shooting kept them in the game as they hit 10 straight at one point but they missed a key FT late. With 47 ticks on the clock and the Billies trailing by 8, they missed the front end of a 1 and 1 for their first miss of the game at the line and that basically ended the game.
Fred only fouled once to stop the clock and Jamie Ruede made a free throw with 4.6 seconds to seal the 9-point win.
Aaron finished with 18 points, Jamie Ruede scored 11, Smith knocked down three 3s and finished with 9, Chloe Donnell netted 5, while Savannah Salinas and Jenna Ruede both chipped in with 3.
Now it’s on to the Dome on Friday.
“That’s our goal, we’ve been talking about it,” the coach said. “We can’t wait to get there, we’re super excited.”
Regional semis
Boerne overcame foul trouble in Friday’s semifinals game to record a 51-19 win over Bishop.
Because of fouls, the Lady Hounds were only winning at halftime by 8 points, 19-11, but outscored Bishop in the second half, 32-8, to pull away.
Abby Smith led the team with 21 points in the game.
State semis
Boerne (35-1) plays Sunnyvale (32-6) in the Alamodome Friday, 3 p.m. The winner advances to the title game Saturday, 7 p.m.
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