After a 10 day layoff, it took Thorndale players the entire first half to play their type of basketball and beat the Bluejays 46-42 in Monday night’s Class 2A bi-district playoff game.
“We didn’t play real great. The group played hard defensively” said Coach John Kovar. “Snook did some things defensively that they didn’t normally do, and it took us a while to adjust that.”
Thorndale was ahead by one point at the half 22-21 and outscored the Bluejays by two in the third quarter to make the score 33-30. They outscored Snook by one in the fourth to eke out a victory in Rockdale.
The biggest reason the scrappy Bulldog team was thrown off their game was the fact that Snook brought a football team to a basketball game. All but two players on the Snook basketball squad were on the football team that went to the first round of the Class 2A playoffs.
They had a 6-foot, 5-inch, 300 plus pound post and two other starters who were six foot and weighed over 200 pounds. The Bulldogs largest player is 6-1, 230-pound Jagger Rubio, who played linebacker and running back for Thorndale’s football team.
“They have this big kid inside and he’s really, really good,” Kovar said about James Young, the 6-5, 375 pound post. “He takes up a lot of space and covers the inside lane well. He never gets fouls because his hands go straight up, and he’s hard to block because he’s so strong. It was a tough matchup.”
Logan Davis a 175-pound 6-3 senior was matched up against Young with Rubio helping out. Young, who averages 10 points a game, scored 11.
“Overall, you’re going to have a bad offensive game once and while, but you can’t have a bad defensive one,” Kovar said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well or take care of the ball like I like, but I have to give Snook credit there.”
Snook finished its season with a 9-22 record.
NEXT — Thorndale, with a record of 23-8, will play La Pryor in the second round of the playoffs on Friday. Time and place were unavailable as of press time. Kovar said he doesn’t know much about the team, but watched La Pryor route Junction 67-21 in Leaky Tuesday night.
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