Steers lose final contest with Wichita Falls Coyotes

Saturday’s match-up of the Graham Steers and the Wichita Falls Coyotes was the last time the two schools will meet on the hardwood. Wichita Falls High School will shut its doors at the conclusion of the 2023-2024 school year.

It was a competitive game throughout the contest but things took a rough turn for the Steers as they came away with the loss 58-48.

The two teams — who have a long history of competition in every sport, including basketball — played with a lot of fire. Players dove on the floor for loose balls, fouls came at a higher rate than most games and it was a real battle through all 32 minutes of gameplay.

Ultimately, however, the Steers never found the momentum they needed to string together the right combinations of offense and defense for the win.

“We could never get momentum,” head coach Kris Hise said. “Everytime anything good happened, free throws happened…we just couldn’t ever get going.”

It took a few minutes for the Steers to take the lid off the basket to start the game.

The team missed its first five shots and it wasn’t until nearly three minutes into the game that senior Keion Shead found the bottom of the net after driving and completing a close shot while getting fouled.

Graham managed to keep it close in the first quarter and tied Wichita Falls 8-8 on a corner 3-pointer from senior Tyson Weaver. But the Coyotes went on a short 5-0 run in the last two minutes of the frame to lead 13-8 after one quarter.

The teams continued to battle into the second quarter as Wichita Falls maintained a slim lead over Graham. Weaver scored the Steers’ first points in the quarter on another corner 3-pointer off an assist from junior Ty Thompson. Weaver finished the game as the team’s second leading scorer with 17 points with five 3-pointers.

The duo of seniors in Shead and Weaver helped give the Steers their first lead in the game after Shead scored at the rim followed by another 3-pointer from Weaver the next possession. Graham led 20-19 with about two minutes left in the first half.

It didn’t last long, however, as the Coyotes retook the lead the very next play. Shead continued to score inside and also earned a trip to the free throw line, but by the time the halftime buzzer sounded, Wichita Falls led 27-24.

The second half was where the home team began to pull away. In the third quarter, the Coyotes outscored the Steers 20-14 to lead 47-38 heading into the final period.

During the third quarter, things began to get chippy between the two teams as fouls became a little harder and the heat of the game increased. The Coyotes had two technical fouls called on them during the quarter, but Graham struggled to capitalize on those errors.

The highlight of the period came at the buzzer when freshman Brodie Martin banked in a 3-pointer from the wing to creep into the deficit. But Graham faced an uphill battle in the final minutes.

The teams played even in the final quarter. Shead continued to score to propel his team while Thompson and Weaver made contributions on the offensive side of the ball. Wichita Falls had another technical foul called on them for a substitution violation, so sophomore Tyler Allen earned a pair of free throws.

But by the end of the game, Graham couldn’t get any closer and fell by 10 points 58-48. The Coyotes will hold onto the final victory in the long history of these two basketball teams.

“We played hard. (The Steers) did the stuff that we asked them to do. We got wide open shots, we got to make shots,” Hise said. “And we’ve been making shots, I’m not worried about that. Once we get in the flow of the game, it’ll be fine, but there was no flow today.”

Shead finished as Graham’s top scorer with 19 points followed by Weaver’s 17 points. Allen had 4 points on free throws while Thompson and Martin pitched in 3 points apiece and junior Cash Bowen had 2 points.

The Steers will begin district play at home Friday, Jan. 12 against Brownwood with tipoff scheduled for 7 p.m.