NEW WAVERLY — The Shepherd Pirates boarded the buses Tuesday evening and headed up Highway 150 to face longtime rival New Waverly.
Although New Waverly is a 3A program, they have built a reputation for fielding powerful, fast-paced basketball teams, and this year is no exception.
Shepherd won the opening tip and immediately went to work, but early shots simply would not fall. After several empty possessions, Coach Jeremy Bennett called an early timeout to regroup and adjust the strategy. The shift helped, but the Pirates still found themselves down by six to close the first quarter.
“Before the game, I talked to them about adversity,” Bennett said. “Adversity causes some men to break and some men to break records. I asked the guys, ‘What are you going to do tonight?’”
The message began to sink in. As the second quarter unfolded, the Pirates chipped away at the gap. By halftime the score stood at 22–26, and the energy on the Shepherd bench had climbed from steady to electric.
During the break, Bennett again challenged his team. “We just have to overcome this adversity. I told them, ‘We’ve got to put the first half behind us. How are we going to respond? Are we going to break, or break records?’”
The Pirates came out of the locker room with a renewed fire. The third quarter belonged to Shepherd, who outscored New Waverly 18–13 and seized a one-point lead. Momentum had fully shifted, and the Pirates never looked back.
Shepherd focused on feeding the ball inside to the big man Brayden White, who delivered a dominant performance. White finished with 26 points and went 2-for-5 from the foul line. Brayson Goodman followed with 12 points, and Benjamin Coyle added 6 while shooting 2-for-5 at the stripe.
Shepherd’s quarter-by-quarter scoring: 10, 12, 18, 19
New Waverly’s scoring: 16, 10, 13, 15
“You know, we have the best big man in the country in Brayden White,” Bennett added. “He’s just a junior, and we love getting the ball inside to him. He can dominate. That’s our game plan, inside and out.”
At the weekend Orangefield Tournament, the Pirates lost their first two games on Thursday, falling to Orangefield 87-43 and then to Sabine Pass 76-57.
However, Shepherd closed out the tourney with three-straight wins, downing Hardin 68-41 and an unnamed opponent 50-44 on Friday and claiming the silver bracket title with a 62-50 win over Aransas Pass.
Against Aransas Pass, Brayden White poured in 39 points, followed by Benjamin Coyle with 11. In the previous game, White and Coyle again led scoring with 31 and 11, respectively.
Against Sabine Pass, White hit 21 points while Braylon Cherry had 11. Then against Orangefield, Bryson Goodman was the top scorer with 10.
The Trojans lost five straight in the Huntington Tournment over the weekend.
On Thursday, Coldspring fell to Huntington 88-42, then to West Orange-Stark 63-42.
On Friday, Coldspring lost 60-45 to Evadale and 73-42 to Dayton.
On Saturday, Coldspring lost again to West Orange-Stark, 44-35.
Head Coach Darrian Kee said that even though they lost, senior Decoryion Barnes led the team and stepped up big time.
“He is the only returner from last year that has varsity experience,” Kee said. “We played OK. We are getting better game by game.”
