Westlake boys basketball pulls to within one game in 26-6A race with win over Lake Travis

LAKEWAY — If Tuesday was Westlake senior Wonder Kahozi’s final chance to face rival Lake Travis, he picked an impressive way to go out.

Playing arguably the best game of his high school career — and that’s noteworthy with how good he’s been for the past two seasons — Kahozi poured in 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Chaps to a 51-46 win over the Cavs on Tuesday night at Lake Travis High School to push Westlake back into the District 26-6A title race.

“As a team coming in here, we just wanted to match their intensity from tipoff,” said Kahozi, who is committed to play at St. Edward’s in Austin next year. “My teammates did a good job of finding me in the post, and we did a good job of running (the high-low offense), which helped me get easy baskets inside.”

Westlake needed Kahozi's big night, too

Every bit of it was needed, too, as Westlake as a team had a bit of an off-shooting night. But Kahozi gave the Cavs issues in the paint most of the contest, tipping the ball to teammates on numerous occasions when he couldn’t grab a rebound himself.

“He’s always going to provide us a quality presence,” said Westlake point guard Gavin Paull, who finished with 11 points. “He was crashing the glass really well and doing everything he needed to do for us to win.”

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Mainly a post presence a year ago, Kahozi added an impressive ball-handling ability to his skill set this season and seems to be more agile. That not only allows him to be a point-forward for Westlake on offense, but to also guard any opposing player, whether it’s a point guard or center.

That paid off Tuesday, with Kahozi leading a defensive effort that played a big part in the Chaps' win.

“We wanted to make sure there were no easy baskets around the rim,” he said. “And then it was really just talking. They have some really good drivers, and we just needed to contain them.”

Westlake's defense was strong from start to finish

Lake Travis (23-4, 8-1) never got into any sort of offensive rhythm and trailed most of the game.

Max Purushothaman’s third 3-pointer of the game put the Chaps ahead 40-32 early in the fourth quarter, then the Cavs rallied. Chas Biegel, Jaxson Shaver and Hunter Duran all connected from behind the arc to help pull Lake Travis within 45-44 with 1:30 to play.

After Kahozi and Biegel traded baskets, the Cavs missed a shot, then turned it over on their final possession as they suffered their first district loss of the season.

“They slowed us down a lot, and we didn’t really get out and play with our pace,” Lake Travis coach Brandon Shaver said. “They offensive rebound really well, and that kind of got to us tonight. We missed a couple and it cost us some points.”

Westlake (19-7, 7-2), which split its two games with Lake Travis, is now a game behind both the Cavs and Johnson in the district race with seven games left.

It will get another shot at Johnson in early February and need help from someone else to knock off Lake Travis to have a chance at the district title. But Westlake coach Robert Lucero said he won’t look too far ahead.

“For us, it’s really just trying to keep getting better,” he said. “We have a lot of guys on our team and the last five days everybody did a good job of pushing one another. Hopefully, we’ll get better the next couple of days before playing Friday, and then we’ll see where we are at the end of the year.”

Leaving the locker room, the result is something Kahozi savored.

“It means everything,” he said. “This is probably the last time I’ll play here and maybe the last time I’ll play Lake Travis. But it’s a lot of fun getting the win with the team.”

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Westlake basketball beats Lake Travis in 26-6A behind Wonder Kahozi