Boys basketball team will play its last district game on Feb. 15. They’ll go against Flower Mound in the Hawk Activity Center at 6:30 p.m., concluding the season. 

The Hawks lost their first two district games before proceeding to go on a four-game win streak until facing another loss. Hebron is currently 6-7 in district and 19-14 overall. Head coach Eric Reil was upset with the results of the team’s game against Lewisville.

“I felt like someone had taken a knife and stuck it into my gut, then ripped it out,” head coach Eric Reil said. “It’s frustrating because you dig yourself a hole, you fight back to have the ball with 12 seconds left, to have a turnover and then they come down and hit a 30 footer. It’s maybe a 20% shot and that’s how the game ends. It’s a heartbreaker.”

Assistant coach Garrett Anderson said Flower Mound has been known to be a dangerous team for slowing down the ball. The coaches have been trying to figure out ways to keep the ball moving so that games won’t get stalled.

“We’re pretty confident since we feel that we [are the better team], but it’s a matter of playing together and playing hard,” Anderson said. “We’re working on different ways to speed them up so they’re not able to slow us down like they [normally do]. We are also working on different ways to beat their zone — they run a unique zone so we’re implementing new strategies to try and beat it.”

Though the team has many sophomores and juniors, this will be the last district game for the one senior on the team.

“We’ve had a lot of hardships this season, but it’s just a deep breath,” junior Jaden Clemons said. “The atmosphere, the energy and really just enjoying the moments that I have with my teammates. We have a senior, Dante [Hoyen], who won’t be with us next year, [so I’m] enjoying every moment with him and my teammates. We just want a win so we can end the season on a high note, and that’s really all we can ask for.”

Coaches have been looking at every game to see how they can improve their players for each upcoming match.

“I think our coaching staff has put our kids in a really good position to be successful,” Reil said. “We haven’t executed as well as we’d need to, so there [are] some things that we can look back on and see what we need to change and do better at. We need [to] improve our execution and close games, because if we don’t execute, it doesn’t matter what plays we draw or what goes on [during plays], things aren’t going to go right.”

Hebron has gone into overtime with four different teams, including Plano, Marcus, Plano West and Lewisville. The team’s focus is to close out games and win before overtime.

“It’s been a very interesting and challenging season since every single one of our district games [has] been close,” Anderson said. “It’s come down to one or two possessions at the end of the game, [and] four of our last games have gone into overtime. Our record doesn’t show how good we feel we are. Our kids have battled hard and kept every game close. We’re really proud of this group by how well they play together and are good kids.”