The year 2009 is past and the first half of the basketball schedule is over. Now we come to 2010 with second half of basketball coming up. We start with January 4 against Brady. Then this Saturday, January 9, 2010 is the San Saba Jr High Tournament. Seventh Grade games will be in the White Gym with 8th grade games in Armadillo Arena. The 7th Grade Girls begin with Goldthwaite at 9:45 with 7th Grade Boys following at 11:00 against Lampasas B.

The A team for 7th girls started out with McKenna Maxcey, Ashlyn Turner, Shellby Buttler, Joy Trujillo, Tori Bauerschlag, Valerie Salinas, Kayla Novak, and Hailey Osbourne.

Their first game was against Comanche there. Comanche is an undefeated team with only one team able to stay within 25 points of them. Comanche ran a very efficient full court press which San Saba did not handle well which led to some easy baskets for Comanche. San Saba was outhustled and to make things even worse hit only 1 of 9 free throws. The final was a Comanche win 28-11

Comanche 9 7 8 4 28

San Saba 4 0 7 2 11

The second game was in San Saba against Dublin. The girls were sharp, playing great defense doing a better job running their offense. San Saba led at the half 19-4 despite missing over 20 shots right under the basket. The second half got a little wild when the San Saba ball handler got into foul trouble and was not available much of the half. Even so, the girls hung on for a 33-23 victory, despite hitting only 2 of 12 free throws.

Dublin 2 2 10 9 23

San Saba 10 9 9 5 33

The next outing was at the Priddy Tournament. Shea Scott and Lauryn Tatsch joined us for the tournament. The first game was against Lometa with the girls getting a very slow start. Midway through the first quarter, San Saba was down 5-4. After a time out with some pretty direct words, the girls buckled down and did not give up another point until the fourth quarter. They ended the first quarter with 16 and never looked back. Some of Lometa were 8th graders, so this was a good victory, the final being 44-7.

The second game was against home town Priddy who was led by an outstanding 8th grader.It was a very tight game as Priddy led 2-1 at the end of the first quarter, 8-4 at the half. 14-12 at the end of the third. Allison had scored all 14 points for Priddy. In the fourth quarter, San Saba came back and got a 20-18 lead. Allison came back to score the last 7 points of the game, the last 4 coming on 4 straight free throws. San Saba lost two key players on fouls during the last run of Allison. The final was 25-20 Priddy. San Saba hit 6 of 18 free throws. The Lady Dillos played a great game, but, not hitting free throws lost the game. San Saba played better defense than the score indicates.

Lometa 5 0 0 2 7

San Saba 16 8 16 4 44

Priddy 2 6 6 11 25

San Saba 1 3 8 8 20

Goldthwaite next came for a visit. The 7th Lady Dillos built on their tournament experience. We started the first quarter a little slow, still missing point blank shots under the basket and led only 6-4. As the defense clamped down and the offense started working with shots going in, our young ladies outscored Goldthwaite 18-3 the next two quarters. Finally at the end of a very efficient game, the San Saba ladies won 33-11.

Goldthwaite 4 3 0 4 11

San Saba 6 8 10 9 33

Next, mighty Comanche came to town. San Saba started slowly falling behind 13-7 at the end of the first quarter. In a very fast paced, loosely called game, San Saba fell behind 31-20 at the end of the third quarter. Then the ladies started coming back, shutting Comanche down and scoring better, but ran out of time losing 35-30. We only shot 5 free throws, making 3. We still were outhustled for too many loose balls and on the boards. We were wishing for an 8 minute quarter. Time ran out before we caught them.

Comanche 13 6 12 4 35

San Saba 7 5 8 10 30

We next went to Dublin for the return visit. We lost Kayla Novak who moved. In a very sloppy game in which we did not rebound and missed too many under the basket shots. San Saba scored only 10 points in the first half, holding on to a two point lead after giving up 8 points in the second quarter. In the second half, San Saba picked up the pace, playing much better defense and taking care of the ball better on offense. By outscoring Dublin 18-7 in the second half, San Saba escaped with a 28-15 victory.

Dublin 0 8 5 2 15

San Saba 5 5 10 8 28

Then our return visit to Goldthwaite. We lost Tori Bauerschlag to injury, so moved up Cassandra Gonzales. In a foul plagued game, a ton of free throws were missed. San Saba had 16 fouls, the most for the year. We had great success feeding the low post getting many fouls on the Goldthwaite defenders, but did not make them pay for the fouls by making free throws. San Saba ended with three girls with four fouls. Much better hustle was displayed as the defense played very well with starters on the bench with foul problems. San Saba jumped out to a 11-4 lead after the first quarter and kept adding on with a final score of 36-16. The 7th Grade Lady Dillos finished 2009 with a 5-3 record, losing twice to undefeated Comanche and once to the super 8th grade led Priddy team.

Goldthwaite 4 3 5 4 16

San Saba 11 7 6 12 36

The B team is composed of Jennifer Watkins, Shea Scott, A. J. Gamboa, Josie Dawson, Stephanie Villa, Lauryn Tatsch, Meredith Meador, Cassandra Gonzales, and Jessica Ramierez. Their defense has really been improving. They started by giving up 20 points in the first game against Comanche getting beat 20-9. They then beat Dublin 13-6, then were beaten by Goldthwaite 8-2. They lost to Comanche 14-6, beat Dublin again by 14-4, and finally played an overtime game against Goldthwaite which ended 5-5. Their 2009 record is 2 wins, 3 losses and 1 tie.

Do not forget to come out and support the Jr. High Dillos and Lady Dillos in the San Saba Tournament this Saturday, January 9, 2010.