Longhorns fall short in comeback against Hershey

    Friday proved to be a tough night for last week’s SPVA champions in action in Imperial Friday.
    On the boys’ side, SPVA champ Chase County went down to Hershey 68-76.
    On the girls’ side, the Lady Longhorns snatched an overtime win over the SPVA champs, the Hershey Lady Panthers, 53-46.
    Longhorn boys’ coach Chris Bartels said his team played fairly even with Hershey in the first quarter but trailed most of the second quarter.
    With 1:43 left in the first half, freshman Cedric Maxwell got a bucket inside plus drawing the foul for an and-one to pull the Longhorns within two, 25-27.
    But the Panthers closed out the half with back-to-back 3-pointers for a nine-point advantage 25-34.
    That little run by Hershey proved to be a precursor of what was to follow in the second half.
    Had the Longhorns been able to go in at half down just two, Bartels predicted it would have been a different game.
    Instead, Hershey took the ball inside to their two big men—6-4 senior McKade Smith and 6-6 junior Jacob Gosnell. Between the two of them, they scored 14 of Hershey’s 19 points in the third quarter.
    The Longhorns couldn’t get the ball to fall and a trio of turnovers enabled Hershey to build a 21-point, 30-51, lead with 2:50 left in the third.
    Braden Space got on track with a trey ball and four free throws and Scott Wheeler added another bucket to close Hershey’s lead back to 14, 39-53, going into the fourth.
    That little rally sparked a fourth-quarter run that saw the Longhorns pull within five points with 29 seconds left.
    “Good things happen when you play hard,” Bartels said. He noted his kids never gave up and was proud of their comeback.
    The Longhorns went into a tight man defense and finally found the formula against Hershey’s match-up zone defense.
 

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