Steers JV struggle in Cleburne

The junior varsity Steers struggled as they entered the Thanksgiving holiday break. Traveling to Cleburne Tuesday, Nov. 22, the Steers could not overcome ball control issues and 3-point shooting from the JV Yellowjackets to lose 89-38.

The Yellowjackets scored a combined 53 points in the first half, taking advantage of turnovers by the Steers and scoring several points from those turnovers. The Steers quickly fell behind early. Trailing 11-8 with two minutes left in the first quarter, the Steers gave up an 11-0 run to close out the quarter, of those 11 points, nine came from Steers turnovers.

In the second quarter, the Steers struggled to contain Cole Geltmeier, who scored 27 of his game-high 38 points in the second quarter. The quarter opened with the first of Geltmeier’s seven 3-pointers for the second quarter. 

The Steers continued their struggles and were held without a field goal until a second-chance opportunity with 5:51 left in the first half with an offensive rebound and put-back attempt. In that time, the Steers were outscored 8-2 with their two points coming from free throws.

Following the Steers’ basket, the Yellowjackets went on a 15-0 run, with 11 points coming from Geltmeier. The run started with a 3-point basket by Geltmeier. He followed his 3-pointer with a steal on the Steers’ inbound pass and a quick layup. A Steers free throw, with 2:38 left in the second quarter, ended the run. The Steers were outscored 8-2 over the final two minutes of the first half to trail 53-16 at halftime. 

While the Steers started slowly in the second half, without a field goal until the 3:13 mark in the quarter, the team showed signs of life in the final three minutes. The Yellowjackets opened the third quarter, outscoring the Steers 14-3 in the first five minutes of the quarter. After getting held to free throws in the first four minutes and 47 seconds, Travis Alverez earned the team's first field goal in the second half following a steal. The Steers scored 10 more points in the final three minutes and trailed 76-31. 

The fourth quarter scoring was slower than the previous three quarters with the Yellowjackets outscoring the Steers 13-7 to close out the game. The Steers’ first field goal of the fourth quarter came with 2:53 left in the game. Alverez scored the game’s final points with 59 seconds remaining.

After the JV Steers played Tuesday at Comanche, the team will travel to Albany Thursday, Dec. 1 and Saturday, Dec. 3 to participate in the Albany JV Tournament, along with the freshman team. On Thursday, the JV team is scheduled to play Stamford JV at 4 p.m. in the Albany new gym. The freshman team will follow, scheduled at 5:10 p.m. On Saturday, JV Steers will play Cisco in the Albany new gym with a scheduled start of 11:20. The Steers’ freshman team will play Cross Plains freshman following the conclusion of the Steers JV.

This story will be updated when stats and information from the freshman game against Cleburne become available.