Sports

During a dark period when they were the losers of six straight games to begin the 2015 campaign, it was their Code Red defense that helped keep them afloat.

Over the last decade or so, Texan football has been about wrecking havoc and attacking the opposing offenses with reckless abandon.

Once the defensive unit got on track, the Texans were able to salvage their season and make a respectable run in the playoffs.

Fortunately, the Texans return a couple of All-District picks on the defensive side of the ball in senior linebacker Ben Garza, senior safety Colby Crowder and junior Sean Rayburn among them.

Another first-team selection Matt Mitchell has been slowed by injury in the pre-season but is also expected to play a major role in the Texans’ defensive huddle.

By the time the dust settled on the Texans’ football season last November in San Antonio at Alamo Stadium with a crushing loss to Sinton in the third round of the Class 4-A playoffs, there may have been an instantaneous sense of disappointment on the field among a few of the veterans who would be departing to the collegiate ranks.

But for those who would be returning to the fold for the upcoming campaign, there seemed to be an excitement for what was to come.

And there should be.

Wimberley will put nine veterans in skilled positions on the field who contributed mightily to an offense that was slow out of the gates, but finished strong as the season wound down.

The Texans lost one of their biggest scoring threats as kicker Hugo Huesca graduated in addition to wide receiver Matt Stroman and offensive linemen Jacob Rothert and Andrew Gonzales.

San Antonio - The Minnesota Lynx were every bit as good as the season high 11,171 screaming fans who packed into the AT&T Center on Tuesday morning probably thought they would be.

And although they may not have been clicking on all cylinders in a very pedestrian first half by their standards, once they got going there was very little that the young San Antonio Stars could do to slow them down.

By the time 12-year veteran Rebekkah Brunson buried a 20-foot jumper from the top of the key midway through the third quarter to give Minnesota an insurmountable 50-29 lead, the only mystery left in the arena was whether or not newly retired Tim Duncan would make a rare appearance on the day his official retirement press conference was scheduled in the same building.       

SAN ANTONIO —  For someone who doesn’t have much time to read the daily newspaper, Seattle rookie forward Breanna Stewart certainly does quite a bit to keep her herself buried on the front page.

Friday night in San Antonio was no exception.

Stewart scored 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds in helping her Seattle Storm snap a three-game losing streak with a 78-68 win over the San Antonio Stars on Friday night.

“Coming into the game we knew we would have to guard against them but we were too streaky on defense.” San Antonio head coach Dan Hughes said. “Their offense is their strength and we didn’t get the consistency on both ends to play a great basketball game.”

SAN ANTONIO — Monique Currie scored nine of her season-high 20 points in the fourth quarter and San Antonio beat the Washington Mystics 77-70 on Wednesday night without the Stars' leading scorer Kayla McBride.

San Antonio announced prior to the game that McBride would miss the rest of the season with a right foot fracture that she sustained in Minnesota on Sunday night.

After undergoing a CT scan and further evaluation, McBride was diagnosed with a right foot fracture and will be out for the remainder of the season. The injury occurred in the third quarter of the July 2 Stars-Lynx game.

McBride’s 17.1 points per game are a career high and she was ranked eighth in the league in scoring at the time of the injury.

Tamika Catchings scored 23 points including a couple of key threes down the stretch as the resilient Indiana Fever recovered down the stretch to hold off the pesky San Antonio Stars 84-75.

Kayla McBride’s 3-pointer with 9:33 in the fourth quarter brought San Antonio all the way from back from a thirteen point second-half deficit tying the game at 55-55 and give them their first lead since 7-5 early on.

From there, Catchings drilled a triple from the left baseline and then Briann January buried another one on the Fever’s next possession for a 61-55 lead to silence the 6,102 fans at the AT&T Center.

Dearica Hamby’s 3-point play pulled San Antonio to 77-71 with 2:06 left, but Briann January answered with a 3-pointer.

Three Wimberley High School golfers were named to the All-State teams by UIL Texas and Texas High School Golf Scoreboard. 

Texan Kellen Gray was 1st Team All-State, Lady Texan Faith Kilgore was named 1st Team All-State and Lady Texan Kendal Luis was named Honorable Mention All-State.

The First Team All-State designation means the average scoring for each player over the entire season was in the top 10 individually within the UIL 4A classification.  Honorable mention is within the top 30.

“It’s an honor to have an opportunity to coach these kids,” Head Coach Jeff McDorman said. “They put in all the work. To be at the top of all the golfers in 4A is amazing. There may be a 1,000 kids playing golf just in 4A.”

San Antonio - With former Detroit Piston legend Bill Laimbeer at the head coaching reigns of the visiting New York Liberty, you couldn’t expect anything less than a physical, ugly WNBA matchup at the AT&T Center on Saturday night.

When it was all said and done, the Liberty (5-4) muscled their way to a comfortable 90-75 win over San Antonio despite a career night from 6-foot-5 inch forward Astou Ndour, who scored 18 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked five shots for the Stars.

Aside from Ndour's output, the Stars were punished for the majority of the contest in the paint with Liberty star center Tina Charles doing most of the damage.

Rookie Haley Peters scored 16 fourth quarter points to help San Antonio overcome a double-digit second half deficit as the Stars surged past the Chicago Sky for their first win of the season in front of 5,210 raucous fans at the AT&T Center on Friday night.

Peters’ key three-point play ignited the crowd and brought the Stars back from a deficit that ballooned to as high as 62-47 with 1:36 left in the third period.

“I just tried to be aggressive all game and the first half my shots weren’t falling.” Peters said. “I know what my role is on offense and I just tried to stay in it and stay confident.”

Football season may still be just under three months away but the 2016 schedule has already been released and Texans have visions of advancing past the third round for the first time since their state championship season in 2011.

Wimberley will begin their two year run in the newly compiled five team District 13 4-A which also features Bandera, Hondo, Llano, and Navarro.

The Texans - who were eliminated in the area round by Sinton 29-21 after finishing second place in District 26 4-A behind rival Navarro – will open the season at home against LaVernia on August 26 at Texan Stadium before hitting the road in the second week against high powered Giddings on September 2.

Giddings finished 12-1 last season and were upset by Bellville in the area round.