The San Saba Lady Dillos opened up the second half of District play with a resounding 50-25 win over Dublin but also suffered their first loss of the year as they were defeated by the Bangs Lady Dragons by a score of 43-37. We played Dublin last Tuesday and had a really crisp, well played game. We had a great first quarter as we tallied 20 points in this stanza and took a commanding 33-14 lead in at the half. We came out after half and had a strong third quarter as we outscored our counterpart, 13-3. We finished with four points in the final quarter to make the score 50-25. Dublin has been battling some injuries and lost a really nice player to a knee injury and they were just getting their point guard back from a stress fracture so they were battling with a bit of a short stick. Danessa Vasquez really shot the ball well in the first half collecting three three pointers and she lead us for the night with 19 points. Haylee Oliver chipped in 10 as well and Bianca Zepeda and Nicole Sears added 7 and 6 respectively. Haylee lead us in rebounding with 12 while Jaena Edwards added 5 boards of her own. In the theft department Haylee had 5 while Nessa collected 4. Tarah Crosby and Bianca each had 3 assists in this category.

Last Friday we ventured to DragonLand for what I knew was going to be a battle. Bangs is very, very athletic and well coached. Coach Beck has done a great job there since inheriting the job. The first round over here was a great game and I knew round two would be more of the same. One "achilles heel" for us lately has been our inability to take care of the ball. We had 22 turnovers versus Bangs and 8 of those were in the first quarter. As far as shooting for the night we were 10 of 48 and of those 48 shots we were 1 of 20 from the three point line which averages out to a 21% for the night. We didn’t play our best, I didn’t coach my best and let’s give a little credit to Bangs for our shortcomings the other night. Despite not being able to "throw it in the ocean" with 3:36 left to play in the game we were only down four (37-33).

We were in foul trouble right from the beginning and the Lady Dragons were in the 1 and 1 bonus before the first quarter ended. We went to a zone which gave Bangs trouble and held a 21-18 lead at halftime. We pushed the lead to five in the third quarter but towards the end of the quarter is where things started to unravel for us. With a little over two minutes left in the third quarter we turned the ball over three straight times and Bangs capitalized on these errors. Bangs finally got the lead at the end of the third quarter (31-29) and never relinquished it. To start the fourth quarter the Evans kid hit a three ball and this really brought their crowd to life. Like I said earlier we were still only down four with lots of time left but last Friday night was just not going to be our night. Once again, give Bangs credit where credit is due. They forced us into turnovers and we didn’t do a good job of handling their pressure and I didn’t do a good job of adjusting. Haylee lead us in scoring with 14 followed by Nicole Sears with 7 and Nessa Vasquez with 6. Haylee hauled in 16 rebounds while Nicole added 6. In the steals department Tarah Crosby had 3 and Haylee lead us in assists with 3. Our kids took the loss hard and I hurt for them as well. They have nothing to be ashamed of. Like I told them, let’s don’t let one bad night stay with us for the rest of the season and cancel out all we’ve accomplished thus far. There’s lots of hoops left to play and we’ll be fine. What we need again is for our awesome Dillo Fans to show up in DROVES in Early this Friday. We play a key game with Early and it’ll be a battle probably real similar to Bangs. I appreciate the following last Friday. You guys are greatly appreciated. As of now, we’re one game up on Bangs and Early with a 7-1 record, these two are each 6-2. Coleman and Comanche are still hanging around in the playoff hunt with a 3-4 record. Bangs and Early both have to travel to Comanche in the second round which is a hard place to play and Coleman has been playing well lately so who knows how the smoke will clear. If a team isn’t ready to play they can be knocked off at anytime. Also, last Saturday turned out fine for us over at Llano, we lost a heartbreaker 14-13. The little ones played well!! Come be LOUD and PROUD this Friday in Early, America. MOE!!! Phil 4:13.