It's been a fast and furious two weeks!!!! I would first like to congratulate our Varsity Football team on their season. A share of the District title and a Bi-District Championship isn't too shabby!!!! When you make the playoffs in footballs, it kind of puts a kink in your basketball preparation, but it is an awesome problem to have. After we were eliminated from the playoffs by Schulenburg in the Area round, we jumped right into basketball with both feet running. We practiced one day and went to Blanco on the next day for our first game. We made some mistakes that you would expect your players to make after practicing just one day. We turned the ball over too much and we had a hard time putting the ball through the hoop. Blanco beat us 47-41. We trailed 11-5 after the first quarter and 19-9 at the half. In the second half we started scoring a little more but Blanco out-scored us by 3 and at the end of the third quarter, we trailed 36-22. Early in the fourth, Blanco went up by 17 and in the last three minutes of the quarter, we made a run at them and cut it to 6 points, but we ran out of time. Scoring for the Dillos was: Tucker Cromer - 15, Clayton Perry - 11, Luke Cox - 7, J.T. Mathis - 5, and Ryan Pannell - 3.

After the Blanco game, we let out for the Thanksgiving break. On Tuesday, the next week, we went to Johnson City. We ran into the same problem as the first game. At this point we have practiced twice and played one game. Again, we had too many turnovers and had a hard time making our shots. Johnson City led after the first quarter 11-7. At the half, we trailed 14-6. In the third quarter we cut into their lead a little and at the end of the quarter, JC led 34-26. JC out-scored us 12-8 in the fourth quarter and won the game 46-34. We got better this game but still have many things we need to work on. Tucker Cromer had another double-double leading the Dillos with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Others scoring for the Dillos: Luke Cox - 8, Ryan Pannell - 6, J.T. Mathis - 4, Clayton Perry - 3, Jose Vega -2, and Zack Davis -1.

On December 2, we hosted our annual tournament. In the varsity division, we had a five team round robin. Schools that attended were Ingram, Llano, Goldthwaite, Lampasas JV and San Saba. In our first game of the tournament, we played Ingram. Imgram is a perennial playoff team in 2A basketball. They were pretty good the day we played them also. Ingram won 58-32. Scoring for the Dillos: Tucker Cromer - 15, Luke Cox - 9, Clayton Perry, Zack Davis, Jose Vega and Ryan Pannell had 2 each.

In our second game of the tournament, we played Lampasas JV. The boys started getting it together a little bit this game and the Dillos won the game 62-41. It was good to see our shots falling some. Our defense played well and our full court pressure was effective. Scoring for the Dillos: Tucker Cromer - 15, Ryan Pannell - 13, Zack Davis - 13, Luke Cox - 6, Clayton Perry - 5, Jose Vega - 4, J.T. Mathis - 3, Celestino Aguirre - 2, and Tanner Hawkins -1.

In our third game of the tournament, we played 3A Llano. Our offense got going a little and we won the game 63-53. Our kids did a good job of getting to the line and we made 22 of 30 free throws this game. Scoring for the Dillos: Luke Cox - 16, Tucker Cromer - 13, J.T. Mathis and Ryan Pannell - 9, Clayton Perry and Jose Vega - 6 and Zack Davis - 4.

In our final game of the tournament, we played Goldthwaite. At the end of the first quarter, the Dillos trailed 8-10. After holding the Eagles to 5 points in the second quarter, the Dillos led at the half 23-15. In the second half the Dillos never looked back and won the game 50-35. Scoring for the Dillos: Tucker Cromer - 15, Luke Cox -9, Ryan Pannell - 8, Clayton Perry - 6, Zack Davis and J.T. Mathis - 4, and Jose Vega and Celestino Aguirre -2.

The Armadillos finished the round robin tournament with a record of 3-1. Ingram also had a record of 3-1 and since they were our only loss, they were first place and the Armadillos were second. Finishing third in the tournament was Llano with a record of 2-2.

I have been extremely pleased with the progress these young men are making. We are getting better every day. We are a relatively young team with two Seniors, 6 Juniors and one Sophomore.

I would like to thank some folks for their help in our tournament. First, thanks to Mrs. Glaze and our administration for allowing us to host this tournament. Thanks to our Principal, Mr.. Martin for his support. Thanks to our awesome AD, Jeff Pannell for helping out on the books and for all he does for our program. Thanks to Penny Pulatie, Kaycee Thiebaud, Tony Taylor and Kara Stowe for helping with the gate, books and clock. Thanks to Kara Stowe, Brandi Easterwood and Robin Welch for helping me with the Hospitality room. I would like to give special thanks to the local businesses that donated food for the hospitality room. Without your support, we would have a hard time providing a hospitality room. Thanks to Subway for donating sandwich trays. Thanks to Gage Bar-B-Q for donating chopped brisket, and to our player's parents and Coaches wives (too many to mention) for donating all the other food and goodies for the hospitality room. I would also like to thank Coach Cash and Coach Mathis for all they do.

When this comes out, we will have played Goldthwaite on December 7 and we will be in the Hamilton Tournament December 9-11.