By Spencer Spilman

The Hays Rebels basketball team dominated Tuesday night against the Austin High Maroons. The Rebels had 11 different players score on their way to a 70-50 victory. 

Hays got off to a fast start and they never slowed down until the final buzzer sounded.

While the Rebels scored a plethora of points on offense, it was their pressure defense that forced turnovers and shut down the Maroons. 

However, the pressure defense got the Rebels in to foul trouble and they were forced to sit two starters early in the game. 

Hays’ Heath Agnew came off the bench and had no problem filling in for his teammates. Agnew finished with 11 points.

“I just wanted to help the defense extend the pressure on defense and force some turnovers,” said Agnew.

The Rebels shot the long-ball well too. Guards Nate Alvarado, Jerome Scaturro, and Charles Bohannon knocked down three-pointers on their way to a 41-25 lead at halftime. 

Scaturro and Bohannon had 11 points, while Alvarado finished with nine points of his own.

“We came into this game with more confidence, and we just tried to have some fun,” said Bohannon.

Hays’ defense was suffocating all night. They forced turnovers and turned those in to points on the other end. 

Rebels’ Coach Sam Lunz emptied his bench late in the game, and when crowd-favorite Andrew Egenolf hit two layups, you would have thought he single-handedly won the game. 

Scaturro was straight forward when discussing the game’s importance. “We got to play harder. We got a lot to lose, and we can’t lose any more games from here on out.”

Coach Lunz was proud of the team and his team’s leaders. 

“We have some good senior leadership, and they have taken that role pretty seriously,” he said. 

The Rebels will look to keep their play up when they travel to play Westlake on Friday.