HEARNE—You might think that trying to bully the No. 1 team in the state that possesses an athletic 6-foot-6 point guard, a sleek 6-foot-5 forward and a bruising 6-foot-3 postman might not be the best idea, but it worked—for a little while at least.
Thorndale pushed back in the second half and shook off a slow start to stave off Snook 58-45 Tuesday night in the Class 2A, Region IV quarterfi nal round in front of a vocal, standing-room-only crowd.
Snook, ranked No. 15, finishes up 28-6 and hasn’t lost since Christmas break. The Bluejays were trying for first regional tournament trip since 2014.
Thorndale (31-3) will now take on No. 14 Port Aransas (29-10) in the second game of the regional fi nals at 8 p.m. Friday at the Cougars Den at New Braunfels Canyon.
Mumford (24-10) and San Antonio Stacey (26-8) face off in the other semifi - nal game at 6 p.m.
The two winners will play Saturday at 2 p.m. for a chance to travel to the state tournament on March 8-10 at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Snook’s strategy was simple: get in Thorndale’s face.
“They play so physical, we finally started taking care of the ball and made some shots,” said Thorn-dale Coach John Kovar. “We played hard, took it on the chin and responded like champs.”
“That’s what we wanted to do, get after them,” said Snook Coach Chase Seelke. “Nobody has really pressured them this year, so we wanted to put some pressure on them.”
The Bulldogs—who have now won 17 straight— found themselves trailing 12-5 after one quarter as the Bluejays forced three turnovers and battered the bigger Bulldogs on the boards.
Thorndale went 5 minutes, 41 seconds without a field goal.
The Bulldogs began to regain their composure in the second quarter and snatched the lead away from Snook, 28-23 on the strength of a 12-0 run to end the half.
Thorndale received a boost from Scott Guzman who stepped off the bench for four points to end the first half that included a steal and slippery layup that energized the Bulldog crowd.
The Bulldogs outscored Snook 17-7 in the third quarter, thanks to some prowess along the perimeter as Sam Reaves opened the period with a trey from the left corner and long distance specialist Mason Fisher pulled the trigger on a pair of bombs from the right side, the last one pushing Thorndale ahead 45-28.
Reaves and Prince were held to 21 total points—16 under their combined average. Prince missed his first six shots of the evening.
Using his size, Prince collected a game-high 13 rebounds.
Albert led the Bulldogs with 12 points and Logan Fisher battled inside for 10 points.
Michael Ramirez paced Snook with 18 points and eight boards.
Flatonia
After getting off to a slow start in their first round matchup against Norman-gee, the Bulldogs had no such issues in their 64-39 victory over Flatonia Friday in Giddings in the area round.
Thorndale streaked to a 20-4 lead in the first quarter, including an 11-0 run to end the period.
The Bulldogs surged to a 28-4 lead in the second quarter as Flatonia (19-12) went almost seven minutes without scoring over the fi rst two quarters.
Thorndale played most of the second quarter without Prince who was sent to the bench after receiving a bloody nose. The Bulldogs led 36-12 at the half.
Flatonia missed 17-of-22 shots in the half.
Thorndale led by as many as 29 in the fourth quarter.
Reaves and Prince each scored 16 points, followed by Ashton Albert’s 15, the most points he has scored since Dec. 1.
Flatonia leading scorer Kannin Mikulik at 19.2 points per game, finished with 17 points, but 14 of those came in the second half when the game was well out of hand.
The sophomore shooting guard was seven-of-23 from the floor, including one-of-10 in the fi rst half with three turnovers.
Thorndale 58, Snook 45
THORNDALE (31-3) — Scott Guzman 4; Ty Prince 11; Jesus Hernandez 1; Ashton Albert 12; Mason Fisher 6; Sam Reeves 10; Ashton Schaefer 4; Logan Fisher
10. TOTALS: 22-46 FG 10-20 FT—58.
SNOOK (28-6) —Charles Ramirez 6; Lance Vajdak 2-8 0-0 0 1 4; Antonio Davis 1-4 4; Kaleb Roberson 2; Damontra Allen 5; Damon Allen 7; Michael Ramirez
18. TOTALS: 17-55 FG 7-8 FT—46. Snook 12 11 7 16 —46 Thorndale 5 23 17 13 —58
Thorndale 64, Flatonia 39
THORNDALE (30-3)—Reaves 16, Prince 16, Albert 15, Fisher 9, Fisher, L. 6, Schaefer 2.
FLATONIA (19-12)—Mikulik 17, Rios 2, Willis 2, Netro 8, Netro, Jon 4. Thorndale 20 16 16 12—64 Flatonia 4 8 18 9—39
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