Lady Lions finish season, build for the future
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lady Lions saw a difficult girls basketball season end on a frustrating note Tuesday, Feb. 4 with a 52-32 loss to Anson.
The Lady Lions finished the season 5-20 overall with a 2-10 mark in District 10-2A.
“I was really proud of the girls this year,” coach Ashlyn Bevel said. “This was my first year as a head coach. It was a fun year for me, and I appreciate all the work the girls did.”
The key point, Bevel said, was several pieces were put in place for the team to build on in the future.
“A lot of program building got done, and a lot of growth took place,” Bevel said. “From the very first game against Throckmorton to our last game, we looked like a completely different team.”
An indication of how things were going to go in the finale came when Caroline Holson, the team’s lone senior, was forced to miss the game and Senior Night ceremony because of illness.
In Holson’s absence, Madi Parrott and Ashlyn Miller each scored 10 points to lead Albany. Anson took a seven-point lead in the first quarter and upped the margin to 19 at halftime, then 27 in the third quarter before the Lady Lions made a late push.
Bevel said the Lady Lions made significant improvement the second time through the district schedule, being much more competitive down the stretch.
“We flipped a switch that second round of district,” she said. “It was really exciting to see the improvement. Yeah, we wish it could have happened earlier, but at the same time, we were glad to see it.”
And progress was made at all levels of the program, Bevel said.
“We had 27 girls in junior high basketball this year and the majority of the ones I’ve talked to said they were going to play next year,” the coach said. “They were so happy they played this year and are going to continue to play.”
The next step is continuing the development over the offseason and summer.
“We’ve got summer ball coming up and I will have two high school teams — a varsity and a JV — and seventh and eighth grade teams playing,” Bevel said. “If we can keep them involved, the progress is going to continue.”
ALBANY 32 – ANSON 52
ALBANY 6 4 9 13 - 32 ANSON 13 16 17 6 - 52
ALBANY – Madi Parrott 10, Ashlyn Miller 10, Tatum Grady 6, Charlee Hefner 4, Charli Trail 2.
