On February 19, the Armadillo Basketball team traveled to Hamilton to compete in our Bi-District Playoff game against Santo.

Santo jumped out to a first quarter lead of 22-10 with the help of good three point shooting. In the second quarter the Dillos closed the gap to eight points outscoring Santo 15-11. Santo went in at the half up 33-25. In the third quarter the Dillos came out on fire and scored the first eight points of the second half and tied the game up 33-33, causing Santo to call a time out and talk about it. After the timeout, Santo regrouped and the Dillos ended up trailing Santo 47-41 at the end of the third quarter. In the fourth, Santo outscored the Dillos 21-12 and ended up winning the game 68-53. The Armadillos played a hard fought game but the big difference in the game was shooting %. The Armadillos shot 25% from the field and 56% from the FT line. Nevertheless, I was extremely proud of our kids!!!!! They competed to the end!! Santo’s coach and many of their fans expressed to me about how hard our boys competed. And as a coach, that is, at least in my opinion, one of the most important traits of a team!!!

Leading the scoring against Santo was Kelan Verette with 26 points, J.T. Mathis and Luis Vega with 7 points, Aaron Perez with 6 point and 11 rebounds, Issac Zepeda with 5 points, and Caelob Hardman and Kolton Ellis with 1 point.

I hated to end the season after the first round of the playoffs. Our team wanted to win that first round playoff game more than anything. It has been 12 years since the San Saba boys have been in a playoff game, and it has been about 23 years since they have won a playoff game. This group of young men has accomplished something that hasn’t been done in a long time, and I am so proud of them for that. If you see them around town, please congratulate them on a great season!! The members of this years Varsity team were: J.T Mathis, Luis Vega, Aaron Perez, Issac Zepeda, Kelan Verette, Garrett Welch, Kolton Ellis, and Caelob Hardman.

The Dillos ended the year with an 11-17 record overall and a 6-4 record in district. Our non-district schedule was pretty tough, as we played a couple of top ranked 1A opponents, some tough 2A opponents who made the playoffs, and even a couple of 3A opponents. I believe playing such good teams before district made us a better team and prepared us for district play. By making the playoffs this year, we have set the bar a little higher and look forward to next year!!! Thanks goes to all of you fans that have supported our team. Our kids really appreciate you!!!