By Ryan Mayner

The Hays Rebels boys basketball team defeated the New Braunfels Canyon Cougars 51-40 in a non-district game at Bales gym Tuesday night.

Senior Heath Agnew, who had missed the previous home loss against Clemens, led the team in scoring with eight points. Senior guard Nate Alvarado also scored eight points in a well-balanced attack.

Hays led from start to finish, looking strong against a determined road squad. First year head coach Sam Lunz was trying out different successful lineups and strategies.

Sophomore Charles Bohannon set the tone early with the first two points of the game on a driving layup. But it was still only 3-0 when Canyon finally scored with 4:33 left in the first quarter.

Alvarado facilitated the offense, getting the ball inside to Jake Krafka and Hayden Hoekstra. In turn, the Rebel big men got the ball back out to the guards, especially Jerome Scaturro. While no single member of the team scored in double-digits, they didn’t need to.

The damage was done with superior rebounding, especially on offense. The Rebels were also consistent at the charity stripe, hitting 14-19 free throws.

Canyon was not as balanced scoring, nor was it effective at the free throw line or rebounding on offense. Their frustration showed when a Canyon player was ejected for hitting a Hays player in the face with an elbow with five minutes left in the game.

“It was nice to win the game, of course,” said Coach Lunz, “But you know, tonight’s the first game we’ve had the full roster and the rotation didn’t look as smooth as it needed to the whole game, and part of that’s my fault, but I was pleased with the overall effort.”

Referring to the wire-to-wire win, Lunz said the team did a “pretty good job” of applying defensive pressure on Canyon. He said the plan was to “make it hard on them to get the ball down the floor.”

While there are kinks that must be worked out, Lunz was pleased with the overall effort.

Lunz said the team’s depth is a “good problem to have,” as the Rebels prepare to co-host the Hays CISD Classic Tournament.

“We have a lot of guys that can play,” Lunz said. “We were just talking about that in the locker room, that some of those guys are going to have to work hard to earn those minutes.”