By Moses Leos III

Struggles in putting the brakes on the Atascocita Eagles brought the Hays Rebels’ playoff run to a close Tuesday in College Station.
Atascocita’s willingness to push the pace catapulted them past Hays 70-52 in the regional quarterfinals.
Eagle guard Carsen Edwards scored a game-high 31 points; 23 of those points coming in the first half. Hays junior Jake Krafka led the Rebels with a team-high 20 points.
Hays fought to keep up with an Eagle team focused on running the floor. The Rebels countered their style by playing in the half-court.
However, they couldn’t adjust to Atascocita’s pressure in the first half. The speedy Eagles forced a myriad of Rebel turnovers, which turned into transition points.
Hays senior Nate Alvarado said the pace disrupted the Rebel offense.
It took Atascocita less than three minutes to impose their will, quickly surging to a 7-0 lead. Hays had few answers for Edwards, whose athleticism allowed him to tally 13 points in the first quarter.
“He’s really crafty. He finishes, he shoots, he does everything,” Alvarado said on guarding Edwards. “It was a challenge.”
The Eagles stormed forward, taking a 22-12 lead after a quarter of play.
Hays responded early in the second frame. Guided by Krafka’s perimeter presence, the Rebels pulled to within 30-22 with roughly four minutes remaining.
Krafka said the focus in the second quarter was to improve defensively. That included boxing out on rebounds and to limit Atascocita from attacking the rim.
But Hays couldn’t contain the Eagles for long. Atascocita maintained the breakneck pace, scoring with ease. The Eagles closed the first half on an 11-5 run to take a commanding 41-27 halftime lead.
According to Hays head coach Sam Lunz, the Rebels understood, but couldn’t put the kibosh on the Eagle’s pace.
“The frustrating part was knowing what we intended to do, we weren’t getting done,” Lunz said. “(The players) were kind of trying to play catch-up with themselves the rest of the game.”
Hays slowed the pace and effectively ran its offense in the third quarter. It allowed them several opportunities to get back in the contest.
According to Krafka, the Eagles “couldn’t really guard” the Rebels when they ran their half-court sets.
“We tried to slow them down, get them on some ball screens and get them on some pop action,” he said. “They don’t guard the pop well. Shooting threes, that’s all we could do.”
But Hays soon went ice-cold from the field, missing open jump shots and layups. The Rebels scored only seven points in the third period.
Atascocita made them pay by putting the game away for good. Kick started by a 7-0 run to open the quarter, the Eagles built a 54-34 lead that remained intact until the end.
Hays’ finish marks the second straight year a Rebel basketball team advanced beyond the area round.
For Heath Agnew and the senior class, the knowledge of what three-playoff wins in four years has done to Rebel basketball wasn’t lost.
“It feels pretty good to be a part of a group that helped turn around Hays High School basketball,” he said.