Boerne shooting guard Daniel Rogers flips the ball toward the bucket during Friday night’s game at Kerrville Tivy. Photo by Mike Reeder

The Boerne Greyhounds needed a win at home against Fredericksburg Tuesday night to clinch the District 27-4A basketball title after losing their first district game of the season Friday night at Kerrville Tivy. A report on the Fredericksburg game can be found on www.clickitsa.com.

Boerne’s 50-36 loss to Tivy dropped the Hounds to 8-1 in district and snapped an 18-game winning streak. Tivy, which lost at Boerne earlier in the season, improved to 7-2 in district play while keeping its hopes alive for a share of the district championship. Tivy needed a win at Alamo Heights Tuesday night and a Boerne loss to stay in contention.

“I told the team they had already put themselves in a great situation, so they have the luxury of this not being a big deal,” Boerne coach Stan Leech said. “”We’re 8-1 and they’re 7-2, so we control our destiny. Even if we were to lose and they were to win, we’re co-champs and we would play them again.”

The Hounds were not able to do those things within their control to pull out a win. Boerne made just 10 of 18 free throws and couldn’t buy a basket when the game was slipping away in the second half.

“They did a great job of having hands in our faces and they were very physical,” Leech said. “But we didn’t finish on some opportunities that would have put us in good shape.”

“We couldn’t make jack in here at all,” point guard Sterling Bennett flatly said.

Cold shooting aside, the game was really determined by things out of Boerne’s control. From the opening buzzer, the Hounds found themselves playing five-on-eight.

Leech was too professional to say much about it and his players were too classy to voice much complaint, but the MVPs of this game wore zebra stripes. By the most conservative estimate, at least a dozen first half points went Tivy’s way thanks to phantom fouls, inexplicable calls and “you’ve got to be kidding me” whistles that ended up working in Tivy’s favor.

Boerne star forward Robert Moore and center Chuck Thornally each drew two quick fouls, and by the end of the half Moore was on the bench.

With Boerne ahead 9-5 and seemingly poised to go on a run, the Hounds were whistled for a foul on an obvious pass that was instead ruled a three-point shot, and the first quarter ended 9-8. Another last second foul allowed Tivy to tie the game at 21 at halftime.

The game turned for good in the third quarter when Boerne guard Isaac Evans drew a foul for what should have been a tie ball. Moore, who had kept his emotions in check all year, jumped out on the court and was immediately out of the game with a technical foul.

With the game now grounded to a halt and Boerne fans voicing their full-throated displeasure, Tivy sank three more shots at the line to go ahead 30-28. Evans was immediately whistled for another foul on a shot that involved no contact at all, and the Antlers upped the lead to 32-28.

Tivy had signaled early on its intention to play at a crawl by sitting on the ball for nearly a minute on the game’s opening possession. With a lead to protect, the Antlers went into a full stall. The Hounds managed one turnover with a full court press, but every succeeding attempt at aggressive defense was met with a whistle by the officiating crew from Temple, who evidently regarded proximity as contact.

By game’s end, Tivy had gone to the line 36 times, including 17 trips in the fourth quarter alone. The Antlers ended up scoring 25 points – half of their total – at the free-throw line. Boerne guard Daniel Rogers scored one late layup off a break, but he was tagged with an offensive foul and the basket was waived off. Again, there appeared to be absolutely no contact.

“It got a little flaky there near the end,” Bennett said. “We were getting hit with little touchy fouls and that didn’t help at all. But we missed some easy shots and that didn’t help either.”