Longhorns bring home SPVA title

    Something magical happened at the SPVA tournament last week—something only a few believed was possible.
    A basketball team that was 1-8 just a few weeks ago now stand as the SPVA champions.
    Coach Chris Bartels knew his team had the talent. They just needed to learn how to win  together.
    And win together they have, winning six out of their last seven games. Their win Saturday proved to be their biggest win yet, taking down the St. Pat’s Irish in the SPVA finals for the conference title.
    It’s been 15 years since the SPVA title belonged to the Longhorns, with two near misses in 2013 and 2014.
    Bartels said the team’s season could have gone either way after their loss to Dundy County Jan. 2.
    That next day, he said his kids came in ready to practice and do the things needed to turn their season around. That’s when it started, he said.
    After Saturday night’s 43-41 win over the Irish, Bartels told his team, “We’ve come a long ways in 18 days. We were 1-8
18 days ago. We’re 7-9 right now.”
    That’s because they made the conscious decision to come into practice every day and get better and better, he said to them.
Road to the finals
    The Longhorns began their quest for the conference title Monday, Jan. 16th.
    As the No. 6 seed, they had to travel to third-seeded Bridgeport to meet the 9-4 Bulldogs in the opening round.
    The Longhorns came away with a convincing win, 54-38.
    From there, it was on to Mid-Plains Community gym in North Platte for the rest of the tournament week.
    In the other game on their side of the bracket, seventh-seeded Sutherland upset No. 2 seed Hershey, 45-40.
    In their semifinal matchup, the Longhorns trailed the Sailors for 12 of the 16 minutes in the second half.
    In the final four minutes, the Longhorns outscored the Sailors 11-4 to survive and advance 45-38.
Championship game
    In the finals, the Longhorns controlled the game defensively. Offensively, they took the lead at the end of the first half and never relinquished it en route to the the 43-41 win.
    The Longhorns opened with the hot hand, with their first nine points all coming on treys—one from Cedric Maxwell, one from Braden Space and one from Taylor Jablonski.
    The Irish hung right with the Longhorns and went up 13-16 with a 3-pointer near the end of the first half.
    Space hit another trey to open the second quarter and tie the score 16-16. At the 6:40 mark, Parker Dillan hit one from the paint for an 18-16 lead.
    The Longhorns went silent until Jablonski hit another three-ball with 1:21 left in the half to tie the game again, 21-21.
    As the clock wound down, Space dumped another 3-pointer on the Irish, giving the Longhorns the lead for good, 24-21.
    Space hit his fourth trey of the night to open the third-quarter scoring at the 6:00 mark.
    Thirty seconds later, Scott Wheeler found himself trapped under the basket but found a way to get the ball in the hoop. That gave the Longhorns their biggest lead of the night—eight points, 29-21.
    The Irish got the lead down to two, 31-29, before Space added a layup to give Chase County a 33-29 lead going into the fourth.
    With baskets by Dillan and Jack Bauerle, the lead extended back to eight, 37-29 with 5:50 left in the game.
    With a 39-33 lead, Bartels opted to take some time off the clock with 3:25 left.
    The Longhorns ran off nearly two minutes before a turnover gave the ball back to the Irish. After trading turnovers again, the Irish knocked down a deep trey with 1:03 left to narrow the Longhorn lead to three, 39-36.
    In the final minute, the Irish were forced to foul and the Longhorns answered.
    Wheeler hit a pair of free throws at the :58 mark.
    After an Irish three-pointer never drew iron, the Longhorns got the ball back and looked like they were going to put it away but instead missed a layup and putback.
    The Irish answered with their own layup to pull back within three, 41-38.
    Space went to hoop and was fouled. He went to the line where he dropped two in a row for a 43-38 lead, which still wasn’t safe.
    St. Pat’s Tyler Ferguson launched a 25-foot bomb with 14 seconds left to pull them within two, 43-41.
    The only missed free throw of the half by the Longhorns followed, giving the ball back to the Irish.
    With three seconds left, they cast up another three-point bomb that failed to draw iron, securing the win for the Longhorns.
    The Longhorns finished the night 15-43 from the field, including 7-20 from the trey line.
    Space led the scoring with 18 with Bauerle finishing the night with 10 rebounds.

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