SAN ANTONIO – Last Friday’s 4A girls state semifinals basketball game between Boerne High and Sunnyvale came down to the Raiders ability to knock down 3s.
The Raiders finished the game hitting 10 of 16 from long range for 62.5 percent from beyond the arch. In particular, Sunnyvale’s Micah Russell really hurt the Lady Greyhounds after she went 5 for 10 from the 3-point line and finished with 28 points to help the Lady Raiders defeat the Boerne girls, 49-47.
Friday’s setback was only the second one for the BHS girls team that ends the season at 35-2.
Afterwards, Boerne coach Amy Ruede said it was a great season for her team and tipped her hat to Russell and the Raiders.
“We matched them play for play but (Russell) for them just lit us up from outside,” the coach said. “We knew she was a good shooter, but she was unconscious as far as shooting from the perimeter.”
There were three ties and four lead changes in the game, but the Hounds were never leading after any of the four quarters.
Boerne’s last lead came in the third quarter at 21-20 with an Averi Aaron jumper, but the Raiders responded by sinking three straight 3s over the next three minutes – the last from Russell – for a 9-0 run and the 29-21 lead.
“They just kept hitting shot after shot after shot,” Coach Ruede said. “I felt like we were going to get back in it and they would hit a shot.”
Aaron and Jamie Ruede helped Boerne end the third quarter on a 4-1 run but the Lady Hounds were trailing at the end of three, 30-25.
The Raiders opened the fourth quarter by hitting two more 3s for a 6-2 spurt and built its biggest lead of the game at 36-27 with 5:45 left.
Boerne clawed its way back into the contest by hitting a few shots but also had to start fouling in the final five minutes. Sunnyvale went to the line 16 times in the final period and went 11 for 16 and scored its last 11 points at the stripe.
Boerne cut the lead to two points on four different occasions in the final 1:16 – the last coming on a Jamie Ruede 3 at the buzzer – but could get no closer.
“We put ourselves in a position where we could have won at the end if we would have gotten the fouls on the kids we wanted to foul,” Coach Ruede said. “I’m really proud of my team, we had a really good game plan going in, it was a physical game, but I was proud of our effort.”
BHS graduates three seniors in Liz Fox, Sushanna Cobb and Jamie Ruede.
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