SAN ANTONIO — Bulldogs boys hoops competed in the UIL boys state basketball tournament March 10 at the Alamodome in San Antonio and were defeated by La Rue La Poynor High School with a final score of 66- 43. Flatonia couldn’t get much of anything going on offense while La Poynor made baskets from distance and took advantage of the Bulldogs mistakes.
“La Poynor’s a very, very good team,” said Flatonia head boys basketball coach Chris Sodek.
“We knew that coming into the game. We thought there were some things we could do to give us the best chance to win. Early on, things seemed to be working well, then they started hitting shots. We didn’t do a very good job of converting easy shots today, but they had a lot to do with that. I felt that they won the loose ball battle, especially in the first half, which allowed them to get a few easy buckets to distance the lead. Our plan coming out of halftime was to see if we could cut it to 10. Going into the fourth quarter, I think we got it as low as 13 or 12, then they got it back up to 18 by the time the fourth quarter started. Credit to those guys. They’re a good team. I know these kids are disappointed as we all are, but you gotta kind of look at it in perspective of what we accomplished this year. It was a great year for us, no doubt. First time for Flatonia to go to state ever in basketball. We won region four, we won district four consecutive years, so I’m not disappointed in none of these kids at all.”
“We’ve been wanting to do this for four years,” said Bulldogs senior guard Holden Kloesel on what it meant to make it to state.
Kloesel was one of Flatonia’s more consistent scorers throughout the season. “We thought we were gonna do it every single year. This year, we finally did it. Everyone supported us. It felt great. We got here and wanted to win it all but it didn’t happen. We tried.”
La Poynor only had a small lead after the first quarter at 10-7 on a couple layups, a three-point- er, a free throw and a floater.
Flatonia senior point guard Luke Law made an and one basket for the Bulldogs first points of the game, then senior guard Keyshaun Green hit a jumper and senior center Jaidyn Guyton hit two free throws for Flatonia's final points of the quarter.
The Flyers went on a 7-0 run to start the second quarter with
a three, a jumper and a float er. Kloesel and senior shooting guard Dayton Cliffe both hit three-pointers to make it 19-13, then La Poyner put it at 31-18 with a minute and a half to go with a three of their own. La Poyner went on to score two more layups to take a 35-18 advantage at halftime.
Flatonia’s Keyshaun Green hit one free throw to start the second quarter before La Poyner answered with a bunch of layups to take a 47-29 lead at the end of the third quarter.
La Poyner continued to put it on with their shot making in the fourth quarter as Flatonia nia went cold. The Flyers hit a three and a bunch of layups in crunch time to stay ahead and secure a 66-43 win.
