Lady Lions working to find rhythm
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lady Lions hit the midway point of the District 10-2A schedule last week with a pair of losses, but are still ahead of their pace from a year ago.
Albany (8-15 overall, 1-6 district) began the second round of 10-2A play Tuesday, Jan. 17, with a 75-25 loss at No. 17 Cisco. Details will be reported next week.
“We’ve had a chance to see everybody now and not just on film,” Lady Lions coach Tate Thompson said. “We’ve seen them in person and know what to expect now. That should take a lot of the question marks out of the scenario, and the ones we played on the road the first time, maybe at home, we can use that to get a couple of wins.”
The first opportunity for Lady Lions to do that comes at 6:15 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20 when Hawley visits.
On Tuesday, Jan. 10, Albany suffered a 60-24 home loss to Stamford, last year’s state runner-up. That was followed Friday, Jan. 13 by a 55-35 loss at Anson.
“These last two games, we’ve struggled with our scoring which leads to fastbreak points for the other teams,” Thompson said. “We’ve got to finish our shots in order to cut down on giving up transition points.”
Stamford took advantage of the situation early, leading 22-2 in the first quarter. The Lady Bulldogs continued to extend the margin from there.
Kiana Roberson led Albany with 11 points.
Thompson said that while not at the level of last year’s team, the Lady Bulldogs are still formidable.
“Laylonna Applin’s still a special player,” he said. “They’re missing some pieces of the puzzle that they had last year, but coach (Joe) Crabb does an amazing job with those girls. They’re still really good.”
The benefit, Thompson said, is Albany players seeing an example of what it takes to play at such a level.
“It’s good to get wins, but we’ve got to see the speed and physicality, because we’ve got to know what we need to do ourselves,” he said. “It’s always good to play teams at that level and do our best to match what they’re doing.”
At Anson, the Lady Lions played with the Lady Tigers for a quarter, tied at 11-11 after eight minutes. Anson used a 17-8 edge in the second quarter to take control. Roberson scored 12 points, and Briley Tabor added nine.
STAMFORD 60, ALBANY 24
ALBANY – Kiana Roberson 11, Caroline Chapman 5, Briley Tabor 3, Callan Edgar 2, Avery Everett 2, Madison Parrott 1.
Stamford 22 16 12 10 - 60
Albany 2 10 5 7 - 24
ANSON 55, ALBANY 35
ALBANY – Kiana Roberson 12, Briley Tabor 9, Caroline Chapman 5, Callan Edgar 3, Caroline Holson 2, Mimi Ivy 2.
Albany 11 8 10 6 - 35
Anson 11 17 12 15 - 55
