Albany grinds out wins over Haskell, TLCA
The Albany Lions boys basketball team worked through a pair of difficult shooting nights last week but still came away with two district wins, defeating Haskell 62-50 on the road on Jan. 6 and Abilene TLCA 65-45 at home on Jan. 9.
At Haskell, Albany struggled to find any rhythm early, managing little offense through much of the first half before closing strong to pull within three at the break. The Lions then used a big third-quarter run to take control.
“For whatever reason, we’ve always struggled to shoot the ball well there,” boys head coach Ryder Peacock said. “But I thought our guys did a really good job of not panicking and staying within themselves. They knew they were getting good looks; they just weren’t falling.”
Aeden Mendez led the Lions with 20 points in the win, followed by Blake Britting with 17 and Huffman Heatly with 12.
The shooting issues continued Friday night against Abilene TLCA, but Albany again leaned on defense.
“We missed 13 layups and were two of 18 from the three-point line at one point,” Peacock said. “But we did a good job of getting extra possessions and playing good defense. It was one of those games where you just have to battle through it and get the win.”
Mendez once again paced the Lions with 22 points, Heatly added 13, Britting finished with eight and Chance Stewart chipped in seven.
Despite leading comfortably, Peacock said the Lions were unable to fully close out the Eagles as Abilene continued to hit timely shots.
“They shot the ball really well and kept hanging around,” Peacock said. “We never really got that big run to completely put it away, but I thought our guys did a good job of not letting them get too close.”
Albany faced Cisco on Tuesday and picked up an 83-64 win over last year’s district champion. Statistics from the game will be reported in next week’s edition of The Albany News.
“They won district last year, and it just seems like every time we play them, it’s an intense atmosphere,” Peacock said. “Our guys know they’re good, but they also know we can play with them. It’s one of those rivalry games that always feels big, no matter what it means later in the season.”
JV defense leads the way
The Albany JV continued its strong defensive play with a pair of lopsided wins, beating Haskell 60-26 on Jan. 6 and Abilene TLCA 56-26 on Jan. 9.
Peacock said the JV’s pressure has been a consistent theme throughout the season, as the group continues to create offense through defensive stops rather than relying solely on half-court sets.
“They’re creating a ton of offense off their defense,” Peacock said. “They’re very athletic, they get after teams, and they’re doing a great job of forcing turnovers and turning those into transition points and layups.”
