EMBARKING ON A QUEST

Seeking third playoff berth in four seasons, Cubs begin battle for District 17-3A title in road opener at Troy Friday coming out of holiday break

After taking six days off for Christmas, the Clifton Cub boys basketball team spent the rest of the holiday break playing six games in 11 days to get ready for their quest to claim the District 17-3A title. Although their efforts on the court produced mixed results, the Cubs appear ready to make a run at returning to the Class 3A playoffs for the third time in the last four seasons.

“The season doesn’t really start until district begins Jan. 10,” Clifton boys basketball head coach Tom Daniel said. “But us having a little bit of success now is important because the guys have a lot of belief and a lot of confidence right now, which are two good things to have.”

By winning three of the six games played over the holiday break, the Cubs (15-7) worked on fine tuning their game for the district opener on the road against the Troy Trojans (12-7) at 7:15 p.m. Friday before returning home to host the McGregor Bulldogs (7-12) at 7:15 p.m. next Tuesday, Jan. 14. Other District 17-3A opponents will include the West Trojans (11-8), the Whitney Wildcats (5-14) and Waco Harmony School of Innovation (0-10).

“It’s kind of anybody’s guess,” Daniel said. “I will say that the favorites are the three teams that made the playoffs last year. They were in different districts, but Troy and McGregor were both playoff teams last year. McGregor graduated a lot, but they still have experience to be successful again. Troy has a lot coming back, so they’ll be pretty good competition.

“West has everybody coming back. They didn’t have a ton of success the last couple of years, but they were close. We had to fight to the final buzzer both times we played them last year. Whitney graduated a couple of their key guys, but they have a very good sophomore class. It’s going to be a battle each night, but I think we’re up to the task.”

Coming out a six-day break, the Cubs returned to action by playing in the Rio Vista Tournament Dec. 27-28, splitting four games by losing to Class 3A Scurry-Rosser, 67-49, and the host Class 2A Rio Vista, 55-52, while knocking off Class 3A Millsap, 72-45, and Class 2A Alvord, 66-45.

In the losing effort against Scurry-Rosser, senior Ray Ochoa led Clifton with 16 points, followed by senior Maddox Hinojosa with 15 and senior Kyle Rogers with 11. In the nail-biting loss to Rio Vista, Hinojosa led the Cubs with 15 points, followed by senior Diego Rodriguez with 10, as well as Ochoa and senior Joaquin De la Hoya with nine each.

Hinojosa led Clifton to its first win in the tournament with 17 points against Millsap, followed by Rodriguez with 12. Then, Rodriguez led the Cubs to victory over Alvord with 16 points, followed by Hinojosa and Ochoa with 12 each.

After burning off some of the holiday fluff during the tournament, the Cubs hit the road again for a hard-fought 59-50 victory over the Class 2A Italy Gladiators last Friday. Hinojosa tossed in a season-high 27 points, followed by Rodriguez with 13.

And in their final tune-up before district, the Cubs came up short against the Class 1A’s second-ranked Perrin Whitt Pirates (17-5), 67-44, Monday afternoon in the Clifton High School gymnasium. Ochoa led Clifton’s losing effort with 11 points, followed by Hinojosa with 10 and Rodriguez with nine.

“I like how we’re playing as a group,” Daniel said. “I feel like each game we have a different leading scorer, and there have been several games where we’ve had multiple guys in double figures. Every guy is a threat. And even the guys who aren’t scoring a lot are setting up their teammates.

“I don’t feel like our guys care about the individual things, they just want to play together and win basketball games. It’s pretty exciting when you have a group like that.”