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Feb 23, 2025

Eagles grind out 53-40 area hoops win over Ben Bolt, now face No. 3 Evadale – The Goldthwaite Eagle

Eagle Contributor Aidyn Lee scored 19 points, and the Goldthwaite Eagles grinded out a 53-40 win over the Ben Bolt Badgers in a Class 2A Division II boys’ area basketball game on Friday at Smithson

Eagle Contributor

Aidyn Lee scored 19 points, and the Goldthwaite Eagles grinded out a 53-40 win over the Ben Bolt Badgers in a Class 2A Division II boys’ area basketball game on Friday at Smithson Valley High School.

Still playing without injured leading scorer and rebounder Luke Sanderson, the Eagles improved to 24-6 and earned a regional semifinal matchup Tuesday against the No. 3-ranked Evadale Rebels (30-7).

The Goldthwaite-Evadale game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at Bryan High School. The Rebels will enter the game with an 18-game win streak while the Eagles have a 14-game win streak.

Goldthwaite coach Jeffrey Head said Sanderson, who has an injured ankle, could return for Tuesday’s game. The senior guard suited up and went through the pregame warmup before Friday’s Ben Bolt game but didn’t play.

“That was part of his rehab to loosen up and move and shoot a little on his ankle,” Head said Friday night. “He’s not there yet, but we still have four days until the next game. We’ll see how he progresses.”

Back to the Ben Bolt game. Goldthwaite came in averaging 83.4 points in its last five games, but the Eagles experienced a cold shooting night and trailed 14-7 after the first quarter.

“It was one of those nights where we missed a lot of shots,” Head said. “It’s been a long time since we haven’t had a good shooting game.

“I think we were a little nervous at first. We had some unforced turnovers, and we weren’t making the easy plays. We were making mistakes that hadn’t been showing up in a long time.”

The difference came after Goldthwaite extended its defense to full court. The Eagles scored 19 second-quarter points and took a 26-25 halftime lead. In the second half, the Eagles’ defense limited the Badgers to 15 points. But it took until the fourth quarter for Goldthwaite to finally build a comfortable lead.

“When you’re not hitting your shots, you have to find other ways to score,” Head said. “The full-court defense forced some turnovers and gave us some easy baskets. We also stopped turning the ball over so much on offense.”

Freshmen Hayes Greenway, Talen Gardner and Landry Sanderson added nine, eight and eight points, respectively, for Goldthwaite. Gage Sparks scored five points while Isak Rainlend and Wilson Grebe scored two points each.

The Eagles made three 3-point shots and were 14-of-25 on free throws.

Julian Longoria scored 24 points, including five shots from 3-point range, for the Badgers from South Texas.

“I’m proud of my team because we haven’t faced this much adversity in a while – probably since back in December,” Head said. “We have a young team, and Ben Bolt has a senior-heavy team. We didn’t shoot well. One of their players (Longoria) had the game of his life, and we didn’t get many favorable calls from the officials.

“But we still found a way to win. It was a battle, and we kept playing hard.”

Through 30 games this season, the Eagles still haven’t had a single-digit final score – despite struggling on offense Friday.

“It felt like a single-digit game,” Head said. “Ben Bolt was quicker than we realized. I watched several of their game videos, and this was the best by far that I saw their No. 11 (Longoria) play.

“Plus, they have a lot of seniors, and you just play with a different urgency level when it could be your last game.”

The Badgers outscored the Eagles 21-9 from 3-point range, and Ben Bolt was 7-of-8 on free throws.

Goldthwaite outscored Ben Bolt 17-8 in the fourth quarter to finally pull away. Lee scored eight of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, and Landry Sanderson made a key 3-point shot during the final period.

Goldthwaite is the only District 29-2A boys’ team remaining in the Class 2A playoffs. Junction, the other district team to win in bidistrict, lost 43-38 to Agua Dulce on Friday.