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Varsity boys continue to make progress

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By Sam Waller

The Albany Lions continued to work their way into basketball mode last week with a pair of District 10-2A wins.

The Lions (7-3 overall, 3-2 district) carried a five-game win streak into their Tuesday, Jan. 17 district showdown at Cisco, a 65-51 loss. Details will be reported next week.

Albany hosts Hawley at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20 in a basketball matchup of schools that won state football championships last month, ending the first half of the district schedule for the boys .

On Tuesday, Jan. 10, Albany held off Stamford  56-47 at home. On Friday, Jan. 13, the Lions went on the road to knock off Anson 65-53.

Lions coach Ryder Peacock said the team has made constant progress after having the start of the season delayed until Dec. 20 because of football.

“We’re getting there,” Peacock said. “I tell the guys all the time that we’ve just got to keep battling. We’re where most people are in early December. We’re not even close to being where we’re going to be.”

The game against Stamford went back and forth with the Bulldogs leading 16-14 after one quarter before Albany took a 29-23 lead at the half. After Stamford pulled into a 37-37 tie at the end of the third quarter, Albany pulled away down the stretch.

Albany was able to get scoring production from both its backcourt and front line. Luke Marshall led the Lions with 15 points. Lanxton Viertel added 13 points, with Wyatt Windham getting 12.

“Stamford spreads the pressure out and tries to force opponents into some different things,” Peacock said. “I thought our guards did a good job of attacking the basket. Stamford had a big guy inside, and we took him out of the paint and let our guards create some offense.”

Peacock said Viertel’s contribution came despite Stamford focusing its defense inside. Adam Hill added eight points.

“We put Lanxton on the back side of offenses and press breaks, and he’s really starting to figure out how to get open when his guy steps across,” Peacock said. “He’s figuring out where to be on offense.”

At Anson, Albany opened the game with a 12-2 run and led 20-8 after the first quarter. The Lions led by 20 late in the third quarter before the Tigers closed the gap, making eight of nine free throws in the fourth quarter.

“We came out and really got after it,” Peacock said. “You can tell we’re still not there with our legs. We slowed down quite a bit in the fourth quarter, but we saw some really good things before that.”

One of those positives was balanced scoring. Albany had six players score at least seven points, led by Hill with 21 and Marshall with 11.

“I thought we did a good job of getting lots of guys the ball,” Peacock said. “I’ve said from the get-go that one of the biggest  strengths of our team is everybody can score. One or two guys might be off, but we’ve still got three or four others who are capable of putting up double figures.”

The coach said he expects the trend to continue as the Lions gain more experience.

“I think the guys understand that if someone’s on fire, get him the ball,” he said. “We’re doing a good job of moving the ball and spreading it around, not letting a team taking away one guy be the difference in the game.”

 

ALBANY 56, STAMFORD 47

ALBANY – Luke Marshall 15, Lanxton Viertel 13, Wyatt Windham 12, Adam Hill 8, London Fuentes 5, Lute Wheeler 3.

Stamford 16 7 14 10 - 47

Albany 14 15 8 19 - 56

ALBANY 65, ANSON 53

ALBANY – Adam Hill 21, Luke Marshall 11, Wyatt Windham 9, London Fuentes 8, Lute Wheeler 7, Lanxton Viertel 7, Brayden Watson 2.

Albany 20 17 12 16 - 65

Anson 8 15 9 21 - 53

JV Games

The Lions junior varsity bounced back from a loss to Stamford to beat Anson 32-28.

On Monday, Jan. 9, Albany played its first JV2 game since early December, losing to Woodson JV at home.

Details of the Stamford and Woodson games were not available.

At Anson, Albany rallied from a 22-19 deficit after three quarters to get the win. Huffman Heatly scored six of his team-high 10 points in the fourth quarter while Cade Fairchild and Slade Windham each hit a 3-pointer in the comeback.

The Lions led 9-4 after one period, but Anson cut the deficit to one point at halftime and took the lead in the third. Coach Rod Britting said part of the problem was Albany not getting the ball inside enough.

“I felt like we could have beat this team by quite a bit,” he said. “We settled for outside shots even though we weren’t making them. We concentrated on staying within the offense and rebounding better this last practice.”

 

ALBANY JV 32, ANSON 28

ALBANY – Huffman Heatly 10, Aiden Mendez 8, Cade Fairchild 6, Slade Windham 5, Brody Oliver 2, Calhan Fairchild 1.

Albany JV 9 4 6 13 - 32

Anson 4 8 10 6 - 28