Winkfield receives second basketball award

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Just days after competing in the State girls basketball tournament and receiving All-State honors from the Texas Girls Basketball Association Kayla Winkfield has again been recognized with another post season honor.

Winkfield was selected to the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) All-State Team. According to the TABC Kayla is one of the 20 best girls basketball players in the State of Texas.

Kayla is  a sophomore at Giddings High School who competes as a forward on the basketball court, plays catcher and centerfield on the softball team and runs track for the Lady Buffaloes.

Earlier this week the Texas Girls Coaches Association (TGCA) announced that Kayla, and teammate Jena Meuth, were elected to their All-State team and included in their top 30.

GHS hoopsters receive All-State honors

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Two GHS basketball players received post season All-State honors this week after making it to the State Girls Basketball Tournament last Thursday. 

The Texas Girls Coaches Association (TGCA) picked Lady Buffs' senior forward Jena Meuth and sophomore forward Kayla Winkfield to its 2010 3A team.

The TGCA accepts player nominations from member coaches throughout Texas. Coaches are allowed to nominate as many of their own players as they wish. Member coaches then vote on players to the All-State team using stats provided during the nomination process.

A total of 30 players are elected to the team, this year nine of the players participated in the State Tournament. All-State 30

GHS track teams place at invitational

Monday, March 8, 2010

Both the Giddings girls and boys track teams placed at the Meredith York Invitational Track and Field meet at Sam Houston State University this past weekend.

The Lady Buffs won the 3A-1A division with a total of 111 points. Diboll took second place with 80 points while Caldwell claimed third with 74 points.

On the boys side, the Buffaloes managed 92 points and placed second to Houston St. Pius X who had 121 points. Shepherd took third place in the boys division with 75 points.

In this meet Junior Varsity athletes competed alongside their Varsity counterparts because there was no JV classification.  Complete Results

Lady Buffs win Region, Headed to State Tournament

Tuesday, March 1, 2010

The Lady Buffs Basketball team did something that had not been done before in school history this past week, reaching the regional tournament, winning it, and qualifying for the state basketball tournament in Austin.  On Wednesday, February 24^th, the Lady Buffs faced off in a quarterfinal game against District 27 winner San Antonio Sam Houston in Luling.  The athletic Lady Hurricanes came out with some hot shooting and took a 17-16 first quarter lead.  In the second, the Lady Buffs went on a run and outscored Sam Houston 26-5 to take a 42-22 lead at the half.  “They took out their best player (who will be attending the University of Houston to play basketball) out about half way through the quarter and that helped,’ said Coach Essman, ‘she made them go, though we already were making a run with her in.” 

The Lady Hurricanes struggled with the Lady Buffs press and were not effective handling the pressure and running up and down the court.  “We felt like we could pressure them even though they were athletic because they didn’t really press and no one really pressed them,’ stated coach, ‘they were not in condition to run with us.”  The Lady Buffs held off runs with runs of their own to go on to a 78-61 victory.  

With the win the Lady Buffs qualified for the Region IV Tournament in Corpus Christi to be played at the American Bank Center.  Giddings next opponent was Hondo who had beaten local team Ingleside to advance to the tournament.  The Lady Buffs jumped out early then Hondo fought back as Giddings took a 16-13 1^st quarter lead. 

The rest of the game was similar, Giddings would make a run, and Hondo would come back.  The game was in Giddings favor 35-25 at the half.  The Lady Buffs had a 12 point lead at the end of the third and held off a late charge by the Lady Owls for the 66-60 win.  “You have to give those girls credit, there were several times in the game it looked like we were going to blow the game open and they would reel us back I,” said Coach Essman.  With the win the Lady Buffs made the regional final game versus Wimberley who beat Stafford easily the game before.

In the finals game on Saturday the 27th, the Lady Buffs faced a determined, enthusiastic Lady Texan team as the game went to triple overtime.  Wimberley jumped out to a 16-7 lead after the end of the first and extended it by a point for a 28-18 halftime lead.  “They played very good defense and that effected us offensively, we got a little frustrated’, noted Coach, ‘but we came out the second half and let our defense get us back into it.” 

The Lady Buffs tried to chip away at the lead but could only get to be down by 9 at the end of the third.  “We felt like if we could keep it under 10 we could have a chance to get them in the fourth”, noted Essman.  The Lady Buffs lost two starters as Jordan Masek and Cassidy Melcher fouled out midway through the fourth quarter.  “When we lost those two from the game I knew it would change the game but we also have confidence in our bench to come in and perform, and they did”, noted coach.  The Lady Buffs used their full court pressure to outscore the Lady Texans 20-11 in the fourth to send the game into overtime.   “We had a chance to get a game winning shot but didn’t get the opportunity and they had about 4 seconds to try to win the game on a “Hail Mary” shot”, said coach. 

The Lady Buffs went down quick by four in the first overtime and stayed in the game with clutch free throw shooting, as they didn’t make a bucket in the period.  “This is the best free throw shooting team I have ever coached, hands down, noted Essman.   The Lady Buffs got down by 7 when Jena Meuth and Alex Masek hit two big three’s to get the Lady Buffs within two with a little over a minute left in overtime.  Then Kayla Winkfield hit two clutch free throws to send the game into the second overtime.  In the third overtime the Lady Buffs got ahead for the first time and outscored the Lady Texans 14-2 to go on for an 82-70 win and berth to the state tournament.  Winkfield scored 8 of those points with 6 being big free throws and Jena Meuth added another big 3 and two free throws in the final overtime.