COLUMBUS — Cardinals boys basketball had a convincing win Jan. 6 at the Marley Giddens Center in Columbus vs Halletts ville High School by a final score of 60-42. A tie score at halftime led to 15 unanswered points in the third quarter to give them - selves enough cushion to coast for the rest of the game.
“I know we got the athletes and everything like that,” said Columbus head boys basketball coach Troy Bohac.
“I just kept on telling them to believe, take care of the ball, fight for rebounds, and defense is gonna win this game. I had every ounce of energy and confidence in my boys. Just know how to ad just, know how to fight, and this win goes to them, not to me.”
Columbus junior guard Cristian Reyna was dialed in from long range and hit a number of big shots to help his team secure the win with 19 points and five made threes. “Coach told me to keep the shooting the ball and I just kept on shooting it,” Reyna said. “I didn’t hit much threes this season until this game. We just kept on playing, we didn’t give up. We went into half just confident in ourselves. We needed to play more defense, just play better team ball, and that’s what we did when we came out.”
A few layups, a couple free throws, and a three from Rey na put the Cardinals ahead 10-7 after the first quarter. As soon as Columbus would hit shots in the second quarter, Hallettsville would respond right back.
Reyna cashed in on one of his three-pointers and junior small forward Trevor Berger clocked in valuable minutes with a jumper, layup, and short turnaround bas ket to tie the game at 26 going into halftime after Hallettsville hit a variety of shots throughout the period.
The Cardinals' 15-straight points in the third quarter consisted of a few three pointers from Reyna. A couple free throws and a layup form Berger and one more layup from Braden also contributed to the big run.
An and one basket from junior Jayden Trapp made it 44-30 before Hallettsville senior De’Keidris Bedford made a tough layup to put the scoreboard at 44-32 at the end of the third quarter.
Columbus basically coasted in the fourth quarter and played conservative, but still made buckets to keep their big lead with one more three from Reyna and a handful of short baskets to seal the win 60-42.
