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Posted December 17, 2007, 1:10 a.m.
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By Bill Peterson
Hays Highway Editor
BUDA – Every basketball team has to establish its own, unique identity every year. But this is a tougher year than usual for the Hays High School girls basketball team. The Rebels have to establish two identities.
The situation adds up to an identity crisis for the Rebels, who fell to 0-2 in District 26-4A and 9-7 overall last Friday night at Oran Bales Gymnasium with a 49-25 loss to Cibolo Steele, which is the odds-on favorite to win the district.
Entering the season, the Rebels knew exactly what they were and how they would win. They would run the ball
through Lindie Kimbro and set screens so she could penetrate and shoot.
But Kimbro is gone for the year with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and the Rebels are struggling to find a blueprint for winning without her. The Rebels started this season without Kimbro, but they knew she'd be back and went 5-1 without her. Kimbro lasted two full games on her return, both Hays wins. And since she left for good, the Rebels are a faceless 2-6.
The Rebels haven't shot 30 percent from the floor in any of their last three games. A team that doesn't shoot well has to find some other way to win. That’s an identity, which the Rebels don't have right now. Following a 51-35 loss to New Braunfels Canyon last Tuesday, the Rebels scored only 25 points Friday.
"Pretty soon, we'll be in single digits," Hays Coach Donny McDonald said.
Friday, the Rebels gave the impression of being in the game for most of the first half. Trailing 12-5 through the first quarter, the Rebels stayed within 16-12 until a minute remained before intermission. Then Shaquita Roberts scored from underneath for Steele before Steele's Abby Dietert stole the ball and went in for a layup and a 20-12 halftime lead.
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The Rebels lost their bearing offensively in the third quarter, scoring their only field goal right out of the break. Meanwhile, Steele went on a 9-0 run and extended its lead to 32-16 at the end of the period.
"We've had the same pattern for the last six or seven games," McDonald said. "In the first quarter, we really get after it, then we're a little less into it in the second quarter. In the third quarter, we lose track of what's going on and in the fourth quarter, it's over."
Hays did a nice job advancing the ball in the first half against Steele's full-court zone trap. But that went away in the second half.
"We don't adjust very well," McDonald said. "They quit trapping us and manned up, and we didn't adjust."
On the up side for the Rebels, they didn't take too much damage from Steele star Meighan Simmons, a sophomore who's already hearing from the colleges. Simmons scored only 14 and started badly, making only three of 11 shots in the first quarter.
And Hays sophomore Sherryl Stover, up from the junior varsity, gave the Rebels a bit of underneath presence from the bench, scoring four points. Unfortunately for the Rebels, that left her not far from leading the team in scoring. That honor went to Alejia Cain, who scored six points.
McDonald remains two games short of 600 career victories, the same spot he was in ten days ago, when the Rebels began their four-game losing streak. The Rebels will hope to finish that job this week. They play at home against Lockhart tonight, then go to Lehman Friday.
Perhaps, the Rebels will win one or two. It might show them the way to a new identity. .
