JV Lions host local basketball tournament
By Sam Waller
Two Albany Lions basketball teams took part in the Albany JV Tournament last week with the JV winning two and the freshmen losing two.
Coach Ryder Peacock said the next basketball outings will probably not come until after Albany finishes its football season. The Lions are scheduled to open District 10-2A play Tuesday, Dec. 20 at home against Haskell.
Peacock said being able to field two teams allowed more players to get court time.
“I had some guys that really just needed to get on the floor, especially on that second group that didn’t get much playing time at our first tournament or didn’t get to go,” he said. “It was good to get a basketball in their hands, play a little bit, make mistakes, and hopefully correct those mistakes.”
On Thursday, Dec. 1, the Lions JV knocked off Breckenridge 31-20, while the freshmen lost to the Buckaroo freshmen 32-31.
On Saturday, Dec. 3, the Albany JV beat Sweetwater 36-19 with the freshmen losing to the Mustang freshmen 28-11.
“We were able to play a game each day with both teams, and I thought both showed improvement from Thursday to Saturday,” Peacock said. “I think we shot a little better the first day because we were a little excited. The second day, we cooled off a little bit shooting the ball, but I thought we learned a lot about playing defense.”
Peacock said he hopes to be able to play two subvarsity teams as much as possible during the district schedule.
“It depends on the other teams and who comes out after football,” he said. “As long as all the guys I expect will come out, we’ll try to run three teams on certain nights.”
Peacock said he has enough players available now to make the plan workable.
“I had 17 guys suit up last weekend with one still injured,” he said. “One of the guys, maybe two, will be on varsity. So we’re looking at probably seven or eight guys for each JV team.”
Junior Varsity
Against Breckenridge, Albany led 11-4 after one quarter and maintained the margin the rest of the way.
Luke Marshall led all scorers with 17 points. Aiden Mendez added eight points, while Brayden Watson and Kolt Koemel each scored three.
Against Sweetwater, the Lions broke open a one-point game by outscoring the Mustangs 20-4 over the middle two quarters.
Watson scored 12 points and Marshall added 10. Huffman Heatly scored seven points with Brody Oliver adding four and Slade Windham three.
Freshmen
Against Breckenridge, the Albany freshmen tied after one quarter before falling behind 16-12 at the half. The Lions managed to outscore the Bucks in each of the last two periods, but not enough to take the lead.
J.J. Clark led Albany with 10 points, followed by Jace Little with seven and Breylon Billington with six. Jaxson Street added four points with Bam Becker and Ethan Green getting two each.
Against Sweetwater, the Lions struggled to score, trailing 18-4 after three quarters.
Becker led the team with five points. Clark, Little, and Billington scored two apiece.
