AUSTIN – The Ponder boys basketball team, from its patient, ball-control offense to its candy-striped warm-up uniforms, reminds some of the movie Hoosiers. Much like the movie, Ponder had a happy ending Saturday afternoon.

Ponder used fundamental basketball – head fakes, box-outs, rebounds, backdoor cuts and free-throw shooting – to defeat New Waverly, 51-39, and repeat as the UIL 2A state champion at the Frank Erwin Center. Ponder (40-1) outplayed a more athletic New Waverly club that had scored 100 points twice this season.

“We had to really go to our fundamentals,” Ponder coach Doug Boxell said. “We also wanted to put the ‘mental’ part of fundamentals in it.”

By “mental,” Boxell wanted his team to focus on two things – make New Waverly play its style and avoid a run-and-gun game that favored New Waverly’s athleticism. Ponder’s defense took control in the fourth quarter, holding New Waverly to five points in the final 4 ½ minutes of the game.

Offensively, Ponder put the game out of reach with free throws down the stretch. David Robertson gave Ponder a 39-34 lead at the 4:37 mark with back-to-back 3-pointers.

“I knew I wasn’t shooting the ball all that well. I had to keep shooting since they weren’t playing on me,” Robertson said. “If I missed, hopefully one of my teammates would get the rebound and the put-back.”

New Waverly coach Billy Goffney added. “They hit some big shots down the stretch, and they did a good job of taking care of the ball in crucial situations. A couple times, we couldn’t get to them to get in our trap. They played well.”

New Waverly (32-4), a 2A state-semifinalist last season, took its last lead of the game, 32-30, on a Kyren Watts layup with 6:32 in the fourth quarter. From there, Ponder went on a 21-7 run.

Ponder point guard Isaiah Boxell, who initiated the tempo of the contest, finished with 13 points and five assists and was named the championship-game MVP. Joel Garza had 14 points, nine rebounds and three steals, all team-highs.

New Waverly made 39.5 percent (17 of 43) from the field and only 40 percent (4 of 10) from the free throw line. Watts had 13 points and seven rebounds.

PONDER 51, NEW WAVERLY 39

NEW WAVERLY (32-4)

Watts, K. 5-9 3-7 13, Watts, T. 1-3 1-2 3, Harrison 3-6 0-0 7, Saulsberry 5-12 0-0 10, Carrington 3-13 0-0 6, Reece 0-0 0-1 0, Sone 0-0 0-0 0, James 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-43 4-10 39.

PONDER (40-1)

Garza 5-10 4-4 14, Ballard 0-3 0-0 0, Gregg 4-5 1-6 9, Boxell 5-12 2-4 13, Lujan 2-5 3-4 7, Young 0-0 0-0 0, Robertson 2-6 2-2 8. Totals 18-41 12-20 51.

Halftime--Ponder 20, New Waverly 14. 3-Point goals--New Waverly 1-10 (Harrison 1-2, Watts, K. 0-1, Carrington 0-3, Saulsberry 0-4), Ponder 3-13 (Robertson 2-5, Boxell 1-6, Garza 0-2). Fouled out--Carrington. Rebounds--New Waverly 25 (Watts, K., Watts, T. 7), Ponder 30 (Garza 9). Assists--New Waverly 6 (Watts, T. , Saulsberry 2), Ponder 10 (Boxell 5). Total fouls--New Waverly 20, Ponder 12. Technicals--New Waverly-None. Ponder-None. A--12,258.