Lions battle for playoff position as district race tightens
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lions boys basketball team edged closer to securing a playoff berth last week, splitting games with Abilene TLCA and Cisco. and now look to improve their seeding after moving up to third in the district standings.
The Lions (11-7 overall, 6-4 District 10-2A) conducted Senior Night activities Tuesday, Feb. 4 before a 47-43 win against Anson. Details will be reported next week. Albany will host Hawley at 6:15 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7 to end the regular season, but must sit out a district bye on Tuesday, Feb. 11 before the playoff picture will be finalized.
“The worst we can do is a three-way tie, for third and fourth,” coach Ryder Peacock said. “Tuesday will lock us in if we win, and we could lock ourselves into a tie for the No. 1 seed in Division II.”
The bi-district round of the playoffs is scheduled for Monday-Tuesday, Feb. 17-18.
“The earliest we’d know anything is Friday,” Peacock said. “That’d be us winning both games or Anson winning two games.”
On Tuesday, Jan. 28, Albany took care of business with a 55-10 victory over Abilene TLCA. In addition to eight Lions contributing to the scoring, Albany held the Eagles to just three baskets in the game.
Huffman Heatly led Albany with 16 points, while Aaden Mendez added 10 and Bam Becker nine.
“We’ve had a couple of kids out these last two weeks,” Peacock said. “It was good to have Clay Chapman back after a couple of weeks off and get him back in the mix. The main thing is we could just relax and play basketball. The guys didn’t have the stress of a must-win and could play free.”
The Lions battled to the end Friday, Jan. 31 in a 56-48 loss at Cisco, but the Loboes remained unbeaten in district play. Albany led 17-15 after one quarter before Cisco took control.
“We had one stretch in the second quarter where we got down nine or 10 points and were able to cut it to seven at half,” Peacock said. “We had several opportunities in the fourth quarter to tie the game and were right there to the end. To be on the road at Cisco, I was very happy with the way the guys played.”
Mendez scored 16 points, and Chip Chambers added 14 to lead the Lions.
Peacock said the game showed the level of play Albany will see in the playoffs.
“Cisco was a playoff type game because it set us up for where we could finish in district,” he said. “The next two are playoff games because they’re going to put us on one side of the bracket or the other. It’s not necessarily win or go home, but it’s win and put yourself in a better situation.”
ALBANY 55 – TLCA 10
ALBANY 13 16 10 16 - 55 TLCA 4 3 0 3 - 10 ALBANY – Huffman Heatly 16, Aaden Mendez 10, Bam Becker 9, Jaxson Street 6, Slade Windham 6, Branson Beal 4, Will Barrett 2, Clay Chapman 2.
ALBANY 48 – CISCO 56
ALBANY 17 9 15 7 - 48 CISCO 15 18 11 12 - 56 ALBANY – Aaden Mendez 16, Chip Chambers 14, Huffman Heatly 8, Clay Chapman 6, Jaxson Street 3, Will Barrett 1.
ford....7....3...13...11...—...34
Albany.....13...11...15....6...—...45
ALBANY — Aaden Mendez 17, Huffman Heatly 15, Chip Chambers 11, Branson Beal 2.
