Alamo Heights junior point guard Keith Hartle splits Sam Houston defenders (from left) Dominic Williams and Terrell Minor moments before dishing the ball off to Oliver Jones, who dunked the ball as the first half was winding to a close. Photo by Marvin Pfeiffer

They say “speed kills,” and that was definitely what did in the Alamo Heights boy’s basketball team Feb. 19 in the Mules’ bi-district game with Sam Houston. The Hurricanes ended the Mules season with a 64-54 decision in the opening round of the playoffs at Incarnate Word’s McDermott Center.

Alamo Heights has had trouble with quick opponents all year and the Hurricanes were loaded with speed. It wasn’t the ideal match up for the Mules, but one they had to solve if they wanted to advance.

The Mules held their ground early and were ahead by two, 16-14, with just under a minute to play in the first quarter but that turned out to be their last lead of the night. They were still within striking range at halftime, at 36-30, but the Hurricanes quickness and their full court press took its toll as soon as the teams hit the floor to start the third quarter.

“We just couldn’t score,” said senior forward Jude Dworaczyk of the Mules’ third-quarter meltdown. “I think we had two points? We just couldn’t get anything going offensively and it carried over into the fourth quarter as well.”

Alamo Heights managed their only basket of the quarter with three minutes remaining in the period and the Hurricanes raced to a 16-point lead, one that the Mules would never overcome.

Poor shooting and rebounding have haunted Alamo Heights throughout the season and that was the case once again, although the Hurricanes had a lot to do with that.

“It bit us last week and we lost by two (to Kerrville Tivy) and it bit us tonight,” said head coach Charlie Boggess. “We needed to not do that to be in a game with these guys. They’re really good athletes and they do a good job of blocking out. We really needed to do a little bit better job and we just didn’t do it.”

Sam Houston had the edge in speed this night and it showed in the final score.

“It’s hard for us to practice against speed like that because we don’t have it,” Boggess said. “If you could practice against that every day, you’d get better at it. Quick teams and quick guards … that’s hurt us all year.”

Although the season came to a close for the Mules earlier than they had wanted, it was still a success for the program.

“We buried a lot of ghosts from the past two years. We really did,” Boggess said. “We got back in the playoffs. We’re in a big game. These kids hadn’t experienced that.”

“We’ve got guys that are coming back that’ll put that in their memory bank you know and hopefully we’ll build off it,” Boggess said, looking forward to next year.

Boggess apparently saw that the game wasn’t going to finish as the Mules had hoped and was able to get a lot of those returning players coming back some playing time at the end. He let the seniors finish out the game, but let quite a few others experience some playoff basketball.

“Hopefully that will pay dividends down the line,” Boggess said. “That’s the idea.”

It was an especially tough game for the seniors but they were proud of their accomplishments.

“No regrets,” Oliver “O.J” Jones said. “We played great and we set the tone early in the season and we did well. We accomplished a lot.”

“I guess that’s where the road ends,” Nick Jones said. “We came back a lot better from last year.”

“We turned the program around,” Dworaczyk said. “That’s what we can remember ourselves for this season. We’ve got a lot to be proud of – a great record, a great season. We made the playoffs. We got 20 wins. We beat a lot of teams. Next year’s team will learn from that, and come back ready to go.”