The Armadillos had a better week of basketball last week. On January 26, the Dillos hosted the Brady Bulldogs to begin the second round of District play. At the time of this game, Brady was tied with Comanche for the District lead with a record of 5-1. Even though we fell short, it never ceases to amaze me at how these boys continue to give their best effort day in and day out. In the first half against Brady we struggled a little bit defensively and Brady went in at half leading 28-18. But in the third quarter, our defense stepped it up a little bit and held the Bulldogs to just 4 points in the third quarter and we cut their lead to 2 trailing 30-32 after three quarters. In the fourth quarter we traded the lead many times. We would get up on them and they would then get up on us. With about 3:00 minutes to go, we had a one point lead and they put us at the line on two consecutive trips down the floor. We missed the front end of two one-and ones. If we could have hit those, we could have gone up by 5 on them. With 12 seconds left on the clock we were down by three. We pushed the ball up the floor to try one last 3 point attempt but ended up throwing it out of bounds. The game ended with Brady winning 44-41. We had a few chances to put it away late in the game but missed free throws and a missed layup hurt us. The kids played great and I am proud of their effort. Scoring for the Dillos: Tucker Cromer – 15; Braden McBee – 10; Ryan Pannell and Chase Key – 5; Chance Gotcher – 4; Hayden Oliver – 2.

On January 29, we traveled to Early. The Armadillos won the contest 61-56. With a big second and third quarter of scoring, the Dillos had a 15 point lead over the Longhorns, leading 46-31 after three quarters. But in the fourth quarter the Longhorns made a run at us and outscored the Dillos 25 – 15 in the fourth quarter to get them back in the game. But in the end Early had to foul and this time we did hit some free throws and won by 5, with the final being 61-56. I was so proud of their effort once again. They continue to keep getting better each week and continue to work hard in practice. Scoring for the Dillos: Tucker Cromer – 22; Chase Key – 13; Chance Gotcher – 9; Hayden Oliver and Braden McBee – 5; Ryan Pannell – 4; Clayton Perry – 3.

We will be open on Feb. 2, and will host Comanche on Feb. 5.