By Mike Reeder
View Sports Writer

With their first scoring option under assault and their second option misfiring, the district-leading and state-ranked Boerne Greyhounds still found a way to bury the Billies at Fredericksburg Friday night.

This time, the team’s backup center, David Benac, came riding to the Hounds’ rescue off the bench. Fredericksburg had collapsed its zone defense on forward Robert Moore in the first quarter, effectively denying the Hounds’ leading scorer the paint. Normally when that happens Boerne’s outside shooters make opponents pay, but on this night the team’s long range snipers couldn’t make change, much less cash in, going a dismal 1-10 from three-point distance.

With basically nothing working and the Hounds clinging to a slim three-point lead after one quarter, Boerne Coach Stan Leech decided to shake things up.

“We finally took Robert out because we needed to try something different,” Leech said. “So we brought in David.”

Starting center Chuck Thornally took over Moore’s position and proceeded to feed the 6’ 9” Benac under the basket.

“Chuck found him on six different occasions and David used his left hand, kept the ball low and was able to score 13 points by himself in the second quarter,” Leech said. “We went from three points up going into the second quarter to 15 up by the half. That was the difference in the game.”

Benac’s success opened up lanes for Thornally, who ended up leading the Hounds with 17 points. Moore, who finished with just seven, scored the last four points of the game from the free throw line. Two came after a foul and two more followed a technical against the Billies. Shooting guard Daniel Rogers finished with nine points, point guard Sterling Bennett scored seven, Hunter Simmons made the Hounds’ only three pointer and Isaac Evans chipped in two points. Benac’s 13 points ended up being the exact margin of victory in the 58-45 win. It could be the start of a trend.

“Against zone defense teams, David needs to play,” Leech said. “After what Fredericksburg did we’re going to be seeing more zones.”

Boerne played at Memorial Tuesday night and will visit Alamo Heights Friday.