Lady Lions gaining momentum as season nears end
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lady Lions basketball team showed significant progress last week with competitive outings against District 10-2A opponents who are battling for playoff berths.
The Lady Lions (4-18 overall. 1-8 district) continued the upward trend Tuesday, Jan. 28 with a 40-16 home victory against Abilene TLCA. Details will be reported next week.
On Friday, Jan. 31, Albany visits district leader Cisco for a 6:15 p.m. start. On Tuesday, Feb. 4, the Lady Lions host Anson to end the season with Senior Night activities planned.
The Lady Lions came achingly close to pulling off an upset Tuesday, Jan. 21 in a 31-27 loss to fourth-place Stamford. On Friday, Jan. 24, Albany lost 36-21 at third-place Haskell, trailing by just three points entering the fourth quarter. Albany held leads in both games.
“It’s all finally starting to click,” Lady Lions coach Ashlyn Bevel said. “I wish I could have said that earlier in the season, but it’s making me proud because things are starting to come together. The girls are starting to understand everything we started with at the beginning of the year.”
Against Stamford, Albany led 4-2 at the end of the first quarter before the Lady Bulldogs took a 13-9 halftime lead. Down by six entering the fourth quarter, Albany posted a 12-10 edge in the final period.
“We’re improving every game,” Bevel said. “I’ve had multiple people tell me they can see the progress that’s been made since the beginning of the season.”
Madi Parrott, Caroline Holson and Charlee Hefner each scored seven points for Albany.
Against Haskell, Bevel went with a short bench, relying on six players most of the way.
“It was hard not to play the subs, but it was a tight game, and those girls stepped up and played very hard,” Bevel said. “We played really hard on defense.”
The Lady Lions led early before the Maidens took an 8-5 lead at the end of the first quarter. Albany shaved a point off the deficit to trail 12-10 and was down 19-16 heading to the fourth.
“Haskell got on a roll with their press and we kind of panicked with the ball,” Bevel said. “We turned the ball over too many times in the fourth quarter.”
Hefner finished with 11 points to lead Albany.
