Softball tournaments can distort the significance of pitching accomplishments due to inning caps or time limits, rendering perfect games or no-hitters into half-versions of their true selves.
However, there is no denying that tournaments are work, especially for pitchers, and our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, Hamlin southpaw Zoe Moore, earned the accolade with a 4-0 record in the Wichita Falls Sunrise Optimist Tournament last week.
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Not much separated the Snyder and Stephenville boys basketball teams in their Region I-4A bi-district matchup Tuesday at McMurry’s Kimbrell Arena.
Three points, to be exact.
In a evenly-matched game that close throughout, the Tigers escaped with a 41-38 win that wasn’t decided until the final buzzer, shortly before which Payton Poston’s game-tying 3-point attempt bounced off the rim and out, finally allowing the Snyder coaches and players to exhale and eventually celebrate.
While Hawley’s Kason O’Shields is better known for his prowess on a football field, the HHS senior is actually a remarkable all-around athlete who is capable of having an impact in a variety of different sports.
This week is a prime example of that, as O’Shields takes our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award for the week ending February 18.
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TUSCOLA — The 10th-ranked Stephenville girls basketball team got its postseason started with a dominating performance Monday, using its patented pressure defense to fluster Snyder in a 66-30 bi-district win at Jim Ned’s Bill Thornton Arena.
The Honeybees shut the Lady Tigers out in the first quarter and built a 25-4 lead by halftime, ending the competitive phase of the game before the start of the third period.
The victory earned coach Jason Hodges’ team a highly anticipated area-round date with No. 11 Sanger (28-5), which routed Springtown 81-17 in its bi-district game on Monday. That matchup is slated for 6 p.m. Thursday in Weatherford.
With our recent bad weather pushing an extra game into last week for the Coleman Bluecats, it gave senior guard Braxton Smith three chances to pile up big numbers.
And he did exactly that.
Our Big Country Preps Player of the Week opened with 19 points and nine steals in a win over Bangs last Monday. He followed that with 13 points, eight assists and 10 steals in a near-triple double in a win over Winters.
Eula’s Clayton Gray, our Big Country Preps Player of the Week for the week ending Feb. 4, earned the accolade on two fronts. Not only did he post big numbers in consecutive wins over Moran and Rising Star, but he also reached an impressive milestone in the process.
To begin with, the junior guard chalked up 29 points, six boards and four blocks in a win over Moran. He also tallied 43 points, eight boards and four steals in a win over Rising Star.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Sweetwater-Snyder basketball doubleheader (100 images)”
SNYDER — With both the Snyder and Sweetwater boys basketball teams riding waves of momentum into Friday’s District 5-4A showdown, fans packed the Snyder gymnasium expecting to see a thrilling encore to the first matchup between the teams, which saw the Tigers take a 40-38 win on a layup at the buzzer.
Unfortunately for those on the home side of the gym, the Mustangs had different plans.
Coming in on a two-game winning streak after an 0-4 district start, including a 61-60 victory over Levelland on Thursday, Sweetwater stifled Snyder for four full quarters, building a 23-point third-quarter lead on their way to a 40-27 win over their rival.
Photos courtesy of Lee Scott
The Snyder boys basketball season, seemingly stuck in free-fall mode as recently as a month ago, now has the Tiger faithful thinking this could be a team that makes some noise in the playoffs.
Following a 10-point loss to Shallowater on Jan. 6, Coach Lee Scott’s squad had wrapped up the pre-district portion of the season with a 5-15 record. With District 5-4A play looming on the horizon, not even a good number of “moral victories” mixed among the defeats foretold what would happen next.
Snyder took down Big Spring by 11 points and Sweetwater by two. District favorite Lubbock Estacado slowed the momentum by beating the Tigers 51-42, but Snyder rebounded, both literally and figuratively, by winning its next two district games, 44-36 over San Angelo Lake View and 49-43 over Levelland.
A second win over Big Spring on Thursday (47-34) has the 5-1 Tigers in second place behind Estacado, and Scott has his team thinking that even the powerful Matadors aren’t invincible.
If you haven’t heard of Cisco’s Gavin Landenberger yet, that’s understandable. He and his talented brother, Aiden, were move-ins from Mississippi late last year and weren’t eligible to play varsity ball at CHS.
Now freely able to play, the siblings are making up for lost time and Gavin is currently making enough noise to draw attention from the entire area.
Named as our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, the senior guard absolutely went off last week, beginning with a 28-point night in a win over Albany. He followed that three days later with 32 points in a come-from-behind win at Stamford. The latter saw him hit four straight-3-pointers in an 18-point third quarter.
A limited number of minutes, if the numbers compute correctly, can figure strongly in our selection of Player of the Week.
That is the case with this week’s winner, Gavin Landenberger of Cisco, who opened the week with 29 points, five boards, three assists, and five steals in a win over Haskell last Tuesday.
However, what sealed the deal for the senior guard, was a 20-point, four-rebound, five-assist and five-steal game he charted in a win over Hamlin — numbers he posted in only 18 minutes of playing time.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Pug Parris Classic – Day 3 (79 images)”
Kyla Speights gave the Cooper girls basketball team a 3-0 lead early against Cisco as both teams began the Pug Parris Classic at Cougar Gym on Thursday night, but the Lady Loboes rebounded quickly on their way to a 52-34 win.
Braley Brunson and Brooklyn Hurtado led Cisco with 16 and 11 points, respectively, while Speights’ 14 points led the Lady Cougars.
Having scrimmaged each other already, both coaches knew what they would get from the other squad.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Snyder-Ferris football playoff (78 images)”
CISCO — An embattled Snyder football team saw a difficult season come to an end Friday, but not without the same type of fight it has shown all year through adversity after adversity.
The Tigers, who have had more than 10 season-ending injuries this year, found themselves on top of a favored Ferris squad in the fourth quarter of their Region I-4A Division II bi-district matchup at Chesley Field. But ultimately, it wasn’t meant to be as the Yellowjackets scored a pair of touchdowns in the final period to rally for a 31-21 win.
The loss ended Snyder’s campaign at 4-7, but after the game, fourth-year Snyder coach Wes Wood had nothing but positive things to say about his team and the way it competed.
After highlighting the Big Country’s top guards and forwards the past two nights, we now take a look at the area’s best big men.
For the final installment in our three-part boys basketball position rankings series, we rank the Big Country’s top 10 post players.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading through our rankings, and make sure to check back for all our boys and girls basketball coverage this season.
After kicking off our boys basketball position rankings series on Tuesday with the guards, we now shift our attention to the forwards.
For the second installment in our three-part series, we rank the area’s top-10 players at that position for 2022-23.
We hope you enjoy our list.
With boys basketball season beginning this week, it’s time to shine a spotlight on some of the players you’ll be reading about throughout the 2022-23 season.
For the first installment in a three-part series that will cover all positions on the area boys basketball scene, we’ll be taking a look at the Big Country’s top guards, ranking our top 10 with a list of others to watch this winter.
We hope you enjoy reading through our list.
If it’s true that big-time players make big-time plays in big moments, few had a stronger claim to that “big-time” title this past week than Wylie sophomore Hayden Wright.
The Bulldogs free safety not only came through with three interceptions in his team’s 20-10 District 2-5A Division I title-clinching win over crosstown rival Cooper, he recorded all three picks in the fourth quarter as Wylie was trying to hold off a late Cougar rally.
For that effort, which saw him snatch his fourth, fifth and sixth interceptions of the season, the young playmaker has been named the Big Country Preps Player of the Week for the week ending Nov. 5.
Snyder 28, Sweetwater 0 — The Tigers outgained the Mustangs 312-177 and and forced four turnovers to lock up a playoff spot with a four-touchdown win over the Mustangs.
Snyder (4-6, 2-2), which got three rushing scores from Esteban Cabrera (15-85 rushing), raced out to a 21-0 lead by halftime and completed the shutout in the second half, finishing with three sacks and four interceptions in the process.
After focusing on the top guards and forwards the Big Country has to offer the past two nights, it’s time to shift our attention to the paint.
For the final installment in our three-part position rankings series, we list our top-10 post players for the 2022-23 season.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading through these rankings, and make sure to come back next week when we’ll feature the top boys basketball players in the Big Country.
After kicking off our girls basketball position rankings series with the guards on Tuesday, we now turn our attention to the forwards.
For the second installment in our three-part series, we rank the area’s top 10 players at that position with some others to watch for in 2022-23.
We hope you enjoy our list.
With the girls basketball season upon us, it’s time to take a look at the local and area players who will be making the biggest impact for their teams during the 2022-23 season.
For the first installment in a three-part series that will cover all positions, we’ll be focusing on the Big Country’s top guards, ranking our top 10 with a list of others to watch this season.
As with any such list, these rankings are subjective. We hope you enjoy reading through our selections.
Wichita Falls Hirschi 53, Sweetwater 7 — The Huskies took care of business against the Mustangs, using a big second half to pull away for a blowout win.
Leading 21-7 at halftime, Hirschi (6-2, 2-1) outscored Sweetwater 32-0 over the final two periods to drop the Mustangs to 1-8 overall and 0-3 in league play.
Wichita Falls Hirschi 56, Snyder 14 — The injury-plagued Tigers were little match for the shorthanded Huskies, surrendering 244 yards rushing in a lopsided loss.
Behind a strong performance from running back Ken’Dron Worthy, who had 131 yards and two touchdowns on just 11 carries, Hirschi (5-2, 1-1) built a 35-7 halftime lead that it extended to 49-7 by the start of the fourth quarter. Javian Frazier also had a big night for the Huskies, rushing for 71 yards and three scores on seven attempts as HHS played without suspended stars A’Marion Peterson and Jamarion Carroll.
Snyder quarterback Easton Stewart barely makes a dent when he steps on the scale, standing in at 5-foot-8 and only 140 pounds. But the SHS junior was plenty big enough to lead the Tigers to a 35-21 upset over Graham last week at Tiger Stadium.
Our BCP Player of the Week connected on 27 of 34 pass attempts for 282 yards and five scores and rushed for an additional 30 to lead the Tigers (3-5, 1-1) to a crucial victory.
Snyder 35, Graham 21 — Easton Stewart passed for 289 yards and five touchdowns to fuel the Tigers to a two-touchdown win over a short-handed Steers squad.
Playing a Graham team that was without several key players due to suspensions resulting from last week’s brawl with Wichita Falls Hirschi, Snyder (3-5, 1-1) raced out to a 21-7 halftime lead and never let the Steers (4-4, 0-2) wrestle control away in the second half.
