Longhorn boys come up just short in valiant comeback effort

    It was the tale of two halves Friday when Wray rolled into town for the boys basketball game.
    Wray ran full court pressure for most of the game. In the first half, the Longhorns had trouble getting past the pressure and when they did, none of the shots would fall in the hoop.
    Approaching the end of the first quarter the Horns trailed 10-18 before Tristan Jablonski drained a long buzzer beating three pointer from downtown.
    Trailing by just five it looked like the Horns might ride the momentum into the second quarter but the press from Wray did a good job of shutting down the Longhorn offense.
    Wray’s lead grew to 15 by halftime, but the Horns weren’t out of it.
    Whatever adjustments where made at half seemed to work as the Horns started to chip away at the lead behind some good shooting and strong defense, especially from Cameron Lempke.
    Lempke had a team high 16 points, combined with six rebounds, eight deflections and six steals.
    By the end of the third quarter, the Horns cut the lead in half, trailing by just seven.
    In the fourth quarter the lead was cut to four multiple times but the Horns could never get the margin below four.
    In the last minute, trailing by four, the Eagles caused a Longhorn turnover which pretty much sealed the deal. Wray hit the free throws they needed to put the game out of reach as time ran out. The final score ended at 50-57 in favor of the Wray Eagles.
    The Longhorns will finish the 2023 portion of the season Thursday Dec. 21 when they host Bridgeport for boys and girls games starting at 4:00 p.m. MT.
    Bridgeport comes to town with a 5-1 record with their only loss to NP St. Pats.
    The Sidney Holiday Shootout will be played Dec. 29-30 in Sidney.