Albany to play Seymour for bi-district
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lions kept their chances of winning the District 10-2A boys basketball title alive last week with home victories over Anson and Cisco, but ended up losing to Hawley 65-47 in a district-deciding game on Tuesday night in the Bearcats’ home gym.
The Lions (13-4 overall, 9-3 district) tied with Cisco for second place in district, with a Wednesday morning coin flip deciding the seeding. Albany will go into the playoffs as the third place seed.
The bi-district game will be played against Seymour next Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 6:00 p.m. in the Graham High School gym. Albany will sit on the visitors side.
The Lions will play a playoff warmup game against Sterling City at 4:00 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17 at Colorado City.
Anson Details
Albany routed Anson 67-27 on senior night Feb. 7 with London Fuentes honored before the game.
Albany wasted little time in taking control of the game, racing out to a 22-10 lead in the first quarter as Lanxton Viertel scored all of his nine points. The Lions continued to pour it on from there, adding at least six points to the lead in each of the next three periods.
“The guys did a good job of just playing who they were playing, not looking ahead to the next game,” Lions coach Ryder Peacock said. “Sometimes, you play down to your competition, and I think the guys are doing a good job of not doing that. They make sure they bring their game no matter who it is.”
Adam Hill finished with a game-high 22 points, scoring 12 in the third quarter, while Fuentes finished with 10. Lute Wheeler joined Viertel with nine points.
Cisco Win
The Lions followed up on Friday with a 46-33 win over Cisco, avenging a 65-51 loss to the Loboes in their first meeting on Jan. 17 and moving into sole possession of second place in the district standings.
Albany had to grind away despite holding a double-digit lead most of the way. The Lions never trailed, scoring the game’s first eight points, but had to overcome 32-percent free throw shooting and almost double the number of Cisco turnovers. That was more than offset by the Loboes’ shooting woes as the game was well into the second quarter before they hit their first basket.
“It was one of those games where both teams were pressing a little bit,” Peacock said. “The adrenaline was really flowing, and shots go a little long sometimes. You could see that with both teams.”
Peacock credited Albany’s defensive effort with contributing to Cisco’s problems.
“We played smarter and didn’t put them on the free throw line as much as we did the first time, and that was huge,” he said. “We were able to play a little bit tighter because of that. We weren’t being undisciplined – you can play physical and disciplined at the same time – and that was key for setting the tone right away in the first quarter.”
The Lions led 11-1 at end of the first period, and Cisco was never closer than eight the rest of the way. That was at 13-5 after Tre Brackeen, who led the Loboes with 12 points, hit a 3-pointer with 5:34 to go in the second quarter for Cisco’s first field goal. Albany responded by scoring the next eight points to lead 21-5, and they held a 22-10 edge at the break.
Cisco twice got within nine points in the third quarter – the last at 30-21 on a basket by Gavin Landenberger with 1:36 to go in the period – but Albany responded with another 8-0 surge to go up 38-21 early in the fourth quarter. Landenberger, who had 28 points in the first meeting, was held to seven last Friday.
Hill led Albany with 12 points, half of that coming in the second quarter. Wyatt Windham, who spent most of the first half on the bench after picking up two fouls in the first 36 seconds of the game, added 10 points. Fuentes had nine.
Details of the Albany-Hawley game will be reported next week.
ALBANY 67, ANSON 27
ALBANY – Adam Hill 22, London Fuentes 10, Lute Wheeler 9, Lanxton Viertel 9, Branson Beal 6, Luke Marshall 6, Wyatt Windham 5.
Anson 10 3 8 6 - 27
Albany 22 10 14 21 - 67
ALBANY 46, CISCO 33
ALBANY – Adam Hill 12, Wyatt Windham 10, London Fuentes 9, Lanxton Viertel Viertel 7, Lute Wheeler 5, Luke Marshall 3.
Cisco 1 9 11 12 - 33
Albany 11 11 14 10 - 46
