Cowboys cruise by Randolph, 74-55
Junior Braylen Harris posted a double-double Tuesday night to help lead the Edna Cowboys to a 74-55 win over Universal City Randolph in the Class 3A Region 4 boys Bi-District basketball playoffs.
Harris scored 19 points and pulled in 13 rebounds, while also dishing out eight assists, seven deflections, and six steals against only three turnovers. Senior point guard Markel Soto scored 12 points with five rebounds and senior post Jaiden Clay battled for 10 points and five rebounds. Myles Randall also provided big minutes defensively, as did Kalub Caesar.
The Cowboys (17-8) will play District 28-3A runner-up Lytle (26-7) at Seguin High School’s SUC gym at approximately 8 p.m. Friday. Edna’s game is the second of a double-header at the gym. Lytle defeated Karnes City 71-45 in its Bi-District game.
Tuesday’s opening tipoff went out of bounds to Randolph but Soto promptly stole the inbounds pass, drove the length of the court and scored on a layup to post the first points of the game. The Ro-Hawks answered with a three-point shot to go up 3-2, but it proved to be their only lead of the game as Edna regained the advantage and slowly wore down Randolph.
The Cowboys adjusted to Randolph’s spread-out press break and were able to hassle the Ro-Hawks, tracking and trapping them a little differently than usual and keeping them from getting comfortable in their half-court game. Edna was able to box out for defensive rebounds and kick the outlet passes up court to the guards, pushing the pace in transition.
Coach Sheldon Moor praised his team’s effort Tuesday night, including three junior varsity players who moved up for the playoffs.
“I was really proud of the boys,” Moor said. “I had kind of challenged them all week that this point in time of the year, it’s not like, do we know what to do to this defense? We know what the call’s going to be. If they come out in something we weren’t expecting and they jump into a zone, we already know what we’re going to do against this, we know what we’re going to do against that.
“Will we have the mental focus to make those adjustments on the fly, will we have the mental focus to sit down and adjust to those things, or will we be not mentally focused? We were locked in at a pretty good level last night.”
The Cowboys played well and never lost focus, executing the game plan and hitting all but one free throw, despite an angry, vocal crowd and .
“It was just a really good overall team game,” Moor said. “We just kept grinding and grinding and wore them down.”
Especially Harris, who came close to double figures in four categories despite being off from the three-point line.
“He played a really good game,” Moor said. “It didn’t come from three-point shooting, necessarily, where he usually burns you good at three-pointers. A lot came off of transition points, steals, getting layups. He got 10 points off of turnovers, 12 points in the paint. He realized he wasn’t hitting so he did his damage in other ways.”