Onalaska was tested in the first half of their bi-district round game versus East Bernard Tuesday, but would eventually win 87-67 in New Caney.
“It started off ugly and we came out flat,” Onalaska coach Nicholas Tyerman said of his team. “We weren’t flying around like we normally do on defense. We had to make some adjustments against their bigs, but we were able to pull away in the second half at least.”
The Wildcats would lead by as much as 25 in the second half, after just a nine-point difference at halftime.
“We shot terrible tonight. They had some good size and they did some unique things against the press that we haven’t seen all year,” Tyerman said. “It was something for us to work on to get better going into the next round. It was a good test.
“We struggled early on with rebounding, but in the second half we started flying around their bigs and getting a lot of second shots. There were a couple of possessions in that second half where we had four or five shots in the same possession.”
Devin Vienneau and Patrick Roth both led the Wildcats with 28 points each. Spencer Green scored 14, while Jaden Wyatt had eight.
In the area around, the ‘Cats will face off versus Central Heights. Both Onalaska and Central Heights have played a couple of games in Lufkin this year and have experience in the gymnasium.
