Chargers earn tough district victory over the Patriots

The Boerne Champion boys basketball team helped its cause Tuesday night and stayed in the thick of the district race by defeating Veterans Memorial.

Champion held off a late Patriots push and made enough free throws to keep Veterans Memorial at bay and get the 52-46 victory.

The Chargers are now tied with the Patriots at 4-3, while Pieper is also 4-3 and New Braunfels is 5-3 as the teams battle for positioning in 26-5A.

Alamo Heights and Wagner are sitting atop the district standings at 6-1 as the team’s closed out the first round of 26-5A action Friday.

Champion is 21-5 overall and was at Smithson Valley Friday. The Chargers start the second round Tuesday by hosting Alamo Heights.

The Chargers had a solid start on Tuesday and were up 11-5, but only scored 6 in the second, while the Patriots dropped in 13 and held a one-point advantage at halftime, 18-17.

Champion came out on fire in the third and had its best quarter of the night with 18 points after Logan Scott tallied 9 points in the period, Baeden Burdick added 6 and Gavin Peck hit a 3-pointer.

The Chargers outscored Veterans Memorial in the third, 18-8, and opened up a 35-26 advantage but the Patriots made a push in the final quarter.

Veterans Memorial started the fourth with a 15-4 run and the Champion lead was down to two points at 41-39 after a 3-pointer with 3:35 left in the game.

Burdick answered with a 3 of his own and it was 44-39, but another 3 by Veterans Memorial made it 44-42 with 2:21 remaining.

The Patriots finished with 20 points in the period but never caught the Chargers and Champion went into a stall with a small lead, forcing their opponents to start fouling.

First, the Patriots had to get to five fouls in the quarter and once they did, Champion went to the line 8 times and made 6 free throws.

The six foul shots and a 2-pointer by Kristian Herrera helped the Chargers close out the game on an 8-4 spurt to secure the win.

Scott led Champion with 20 points and was 5 for 6 at the line in the fourth quarter and had game-high honors.

Burdick scored 13 with 9 of those points coming in the second half, Gavin Peck finished with a pair of 3s and tallied 9 points, Herrera netted 8 points and Noa Basco scored 2.