Central ends 21-year district title drought, Nevaeh Hearne scores 1,000th point

It was a historic night for the San Angelo Central girls basketball team as the final buzzer sounded Tuesday on a 45-26 win over Odessa in District 2-6A at Babe Didrikson Gym.

The Lady Bobcats (22-11, 9-1) split the district title, something that had not been done in 21 years. It was the second time in one game the bench stormed the floor. On the same night, senior guard Nevaeh Hearne surpassed 1,000-career points another milestone which had not been accomplished in years.

"(Nevaeh) is the backbone of our team," Central coach Arsenio Geter said. "She's a fire behind all of us. ... We all know it and we all love it, and we let her have her role."

Hearne is one of the few players left on this year's team who knows what varsity basketball was like before Geter. In the summer before his first year as Central's coach, he said Hearne confessed the previous season was rough for her.

"I feel like I handled (the spotlight) way better than I thought I would," Hearne said. "Because confidence has always been a thing for me that I've been working on for these past two years, and I really think I have been doing better at that."

"The last two seasons have been really good for her," Geter said. "It was a tough transition, but she mastered the spotlight and the center of attention."

Geter knew how Hearne felt. He also came from a situation at Abilene Cooper he described as pretty rough, but had a vision for the culture he wanted to cultivate in San Angelo.

Two years later, Hearne surpassed the 1,000-career point milestone after leading the Lady Cats in points and steals this season, while Geter guided San Angelo Central to consecutive playoff appearances with a combined 43-14 record.

Even though a district championship was Geter's first goal for the Lady Cats, he had his eyes set on what was next.

"With any goal it needs to be attainable, needs to be reasonable," Geter said. "Our goal is to find something that we can put our minds to, and that we can reach. And anything above that is our next goal. So our goal has been to claim a part of the district title — or all of it — and we did that. Our next goal is to win a playoff game or two."

Breaking the district title streak was impressive enough, but ending a 26-year playoff win drought is Geter's next goal for the Lady Cats.

Last year, Central lost a heartbreaker to El Paso Pebble Hills in its bi-district matchup. The Lady Spartans sent the game into overtime on a buzzer-beater and sent Central home with another last-second shot in overtime to win 53-52.

To achieve their next goal, the Lady Cats' next opportunity is against El Paso Franklin on Tuesday at Andrews High School.

Franklin (22-7, 11-5) had only one common opponent with Central in Odessa Permian who they beat 59-44. But Geter saw more commonalities with the Lady Cougars.

"I feel like we match up well with them size-wise, I feel like they're a lot like us," Geter said. "They like to run, play aggressive on defense and shoot the ball on offense. ... But I feel like if we just focus on our game, and we play our game well, we're hard to beat."

Playing their game is what the Lady Cats did all season. With their tallest player being Anna Wierzowiecki, at 5 feet 11 inches tall, they are one of the few Class 6A teams without a single player at or above six-feet tall.

One of the other teams like Central — Franklin.

The Lady Cougar's tallest player is 5-feet-10 inches tall, so Central will have the size advantage — a rarity for them this year.

"We'll make a joke about (our size). Obviously, I can't coach you taller," Geter said. "So what we can do is work on our effort and put you in the right position."

The defense was a constant for the Lady Cats this season and something that the team "hung their hat on," Geter said. But it was not always that way at Central before Geter got there.

"I feel like the defense in the past couple of years hasn't always been the greatest," Central senior guard Makenna Mcmillan said. "It took a little bit for us to each get it — but now that we got it I feel like we're really solid."

While Geter did his fair share of X's and O's coaching to get the Lady Cats back to prominence, he said they already had the most important winning formula.

"They all hold each other accountable," Geter said. "It's not just a coach sitting here yelling, and correcting them all the time. They want to win, they can see the end result and they want it just as bad."

This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: HS GBB: Central ends district title drought, Nevaeh Hearne hits milestone