San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Rattlers take command in 28-6A
Reagan junior guard Aidan Richard kept the Rattlers’ 74-67 victory in its showdown with Brandeis in perspective.
Yes, the third-ranked Rattlers broke a firstplace deadlock in District 28-6A on Friday night at Littleton Gym. And yes, the Rattlers (21-3 overall) closed the first round of district play at 8-0, one game ahead of No. 8 Brandeis (16-7, 7-1).
But Friday was not the time to unfurl a district championship banner. Not with eight more league games remaining.
“It’s a big win, but we just got to keep pushing for the second round of district,” Richard said. “The first round doesn’t really mean much. We just can’t get satisfied.”
Still, defeating every team in district is significant.
“It gives us the confidence knowing that we have a chance to win district and we’re one of the best teams in district,” Richard said. “So we just gotta keep pushing.”
Senior guard Luke Price scored 26 points and Richard added 25 to pace the Rattlers, who led nearly all the way.
The Ratters rode a big start to open the second half, turning a 36-27 lead at intermission into a 4429 advantage with 5:27 left in the third.
“Every game and every time we go into halftime, we’re always talking about the first four minutes of the third quarter,” Richard said. “We know if we win those first minutes, we’re most likely going to win the game.”
The Rattlers stretched their lead to as big as 57-43 after a 3-pointer by Price with 1:31 to go in the third.
Brandeis junior guard Trevor Short made three 3-pointers in the third quarter, including one at the 0:32 mark that cut the Rattlers’ lead to 57-48
heading into the fourth. That sparked a surge that pulled the Broncos to within 60-53 with 5:28 left after a basket from Short.
“We started hitting shots, but we knew we needed to start getting stops on defense,” Richard said. “That was our issue. We were letting them score too many points, so we needed to lock in on defense.”
The Rattlers regained command with Richard scoring a pair of 3-pointers, a field goal and two free throws that put Reagan ahead 72-59 with 2:51 remaining.
“We responded well,” Price said. “We turned the ball over a couple of times. But we cleaned it up, and Aidan hit some
big shots, and that was huge for us.”
The Broncos led just once in the first half, 2-0. The game was tied once after that at 11-11 after a basket from James Stahl with 2:51 left in the first.
The Rattlers took a 3627 halftime lead thanks to a 9-3 run in the final 3:18 of the second quarter, capped by a driving shot from Richard.
The run fueled their momentum to start the third quarter.
“I think we started to get a lot more stops, and that helped us on the other end (to) get some easy buckets, and that helped us pull away,” Price said.