Calvert blows out Moulton boys

NEW BRAUNFELS - The Moulton Bobkatz showed they could go up and down the court with the Calvert Trojans for 16 minutes, but not much longer.

A poor shooting second half helped Calvert run past Moulton and into the Class 1A, Division II State Tournament after the Trojans beat the Bobkatz 69-46 in the Region 4 final at the Canyon High gym.

"It comes down to 32 minutes of basketball and it wasn't in the script for us today," said third-year Moulton coach Kevin Fishbeck. "They were better than us at 32 minutes of basketball."

Bronson Zapata scored a team-high 13 points and Tyler Swartz added 12 for the Bobkatz who finished the season with a 25-10 record. Javion Ross led the Trojans with 21 points.

Moulton was very much still in the game at halftime as Calvert led 27-22, but in the second half Calvert's depth Bobkatz.

"They were really athletic, they were really fast," Zapata said.

Ross' fast break sparked an 18-4 Trojan run extended Calvert's lead to 45-26 late in the third quarter. During the run every Trojan basket was either on the fast break or in the paint.

Calvert outscored Moulton in the paint 38-20 and had 24 fast break points to Molton's two.

Most of those opportunities came as a result of Moulton's cold shooting.

Although Moulton was able to find pockets in Calvert's 2-3 zone and get good open looks, the Bobkatz shot just 32 percent (16-for-50).

"We had to settle for jump shots and they weren't bad jump shots," Fishbeck said. "They were jump shots we were hitting all year, just today for whatever reason it wasn't in the script and they didn't fall down for us."

The Trojans outscored Moulton 22-10 in the third quarter and held a 17-point lead going into the fourth. Ross scored six straight points on the fast break to begin the fourth quarter and put the game away for Calvert.

"The bottom line was we were missing shots, shots we had to take and long shots lead to long rebounds," Fishbeck said.

The Trojans were the aggressor to begin the game, scoring 13 of the first 17 points of the game before Swartz got the Bobkatz going.

Swartz went to the hole, was fouled and hit a pair of free throws that sparked an 11-2 Moulton run in the final 3:10 of the first quarter.

Senior post Jacob Novosad hit a jump shot that gave Moulton its only lead of the game 46 seconds into the second quarter.

The game was a back-and-fourth affair in the second quarter with a sequence of three-pointers providing a key momentum swing.

After Zapata hit a 3-pointer with 1:02 remaining in the half, Calvert's Marquise Nunn answered with a 3 at the buzzer that gave Calvert a 27-22 halftime lead. That basket had a lasting effect in the second half.

"That was a big one," Novosad said. "We were in the locker room still believing we would win. They fed off of that."

Saturday marked the final time Novosad the four other seniors will suit up for the Bobkatz. Novosad scored six points and Jason Gold was the other senior that scored against Calvert as he scored four points.

"I remember being in kindergarten watching Robert Tovar and my cousin Bradley going to state year after year," Novosad said. "I can't describe how much it's meant to me."

Fishbeck praised the graduating Class of 2012 for helping Moulton advance to the regional final after a loss in the area round last year.

"What these seniors have done is put the program back to where it should be," said the coach.