Lady Lions struggle to find district footing
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lady Lions picked up their first District 10-2A win last week, taking a step forward in the progress that was begun a year ago.
The Lady Lions (8-12 overall, 1-4 district) faced a stiff test Tuesday, Jan. 10 when they hosted reigning district and regional champion Stamford, losing 60-24. Details will be reported next week.
Albany visits Anson on Friday, Jan. 13 to close out the first half of the district schedule. They will then travel down Highway 6 to Cisco to kick off the second half of district on Tuesday, Jan. 17.
The JV boys will start the sets on both nights at 5:00 p.m., with the Lady Lions following at about 6:15 p.m.
Hamlin Results
On Tuesday, Jan. 3, the Lady Lions held on to defeat Hamlin 38-37 behind 24 points from Kiana Roberson. It was Albany’s first district road win since Dec. 22, 2020 at Hawley.
“It was a great district win for us,” Lady Lions coach Tate Thompson said. “Kiana really stepped up offensively. She started tearing them apart with her scoring in the second half.”
Callan Edgar added eight points for Albany.
Last season, Albany lost at Hamlin 48-44 in overtime as three players, including Roberson, fouled out. This time around, Roberson stayed on the floor, and the Lady Lions made the defensive plays that prevented Hamlin from catching up, but the Lady Pipers came close.
“Our point guard, Briley Tabor, fouled out, and I was thinking, ‘here we go again,” Thompson said. “The other girls did a good job of stepping up and hitting some free throws late to seal the deal.”
Albany led 12-6 after the first quarter, but Hamlin closed the gap to 20-19 at halftime. The Lady Lions pulled just far enough ahead in the third quarter to hang on as Hamlin rallied again in the fourth.
The Lady Lions led 36-33 with less than a minute to go when a Hamlin basket was ruled to be a 2-pointer instead of a 3-pointer to tie.
“We had to play keepaway and make them foul us,” Thompson said. “That was huge. We made a couple of free throws, Hamlin went down and scored again to get it back to one, and after that we held the ball and didn’t let them have it back.”
ALBANY 38, HAMLIN 37
ALBANY – Kiana Roberson 24, Callan Edgar 8, Briley Tabor 2, Caroline Chapman 2, Madison Parrott 1.
Albany 12 6 11 7 - 38
Hamlin 6 13 7 11 - 37
