Reunions are part of holidays
Southern Methodist University, which has Marble Falls High School 2008 graduate Morgan Shell, beat Sam Houston State, 73-52, Nov. 28 to open its own tournament.
The Lady Mustangs dominated SHS in rebounding (51-35) and points in the paint (38-14) to advance to the championship game.
Shell scored four points (one field goal and two free throws), had two rebounds and two blocks in 14 minutes of play.
The victory was SMU’s first of the season.
Waiting for SMU was the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and Shell’s former high school teammate Katie Meador, who also graduated last spring from Marble Falls.
The 49ers got there thanks to a 70-69 win against Fresno State in their opener of the tournament.
Meador played for a minute in the win. Her teammate Ashley Spriggs scored a career-high 20 points. But it was her final two points — two free throws in the final seven seconds — that sealed the victory.
Neither Shell or Meador played in the championship game that was deadlocked at 43 at halftime.
Spriggs again was the catalyst as she hit a buzzer-beater to secure the win for Charlotte, 76-74.
The win improved the 49ers to 5-2 on the season.
On a related note of Meador’s and Shell’s former high school coaches, Eric Boettcher will be in Burnet County this week.
Boettcher is enjoying his second season as the head coach of Houston Second Baptist High School.
His team will be playing in the Burnet Tournament this week.
They will take on Austin High in their first game Friday at 1:30 p.m. and then meet Burnet High School at 6 p.m. later that day.
The tournament is a round robin and includes Austin LBJ, Round Rock Westwood and Fredericksburg.
Second Baptist is 10-1 overall and on a four-game winning streak, which is expected to move up to five since the Fighting Eagles are playing Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart today.
The only close game was against Cooper of The Woodlands, a 39-36, victory.
The setback was to Cooper, 56-40, three days earlier.
Boettcher coached Shell and Meador for three years.
The three fulfilled a goal Boettcher set when he was hired by Marble Falls about a decade ago.
That was to get the Lady Mustangs to the state tournament, which they did in 2006-2007.
Boettcher has had nothing but praise for his former players. And he hopes to do for his current team what he helped Marble Falls accomplish while was he was here – to reach the state tournament.
And that’s one reunion Boettcher is looking forward to.