I hope that all Lady Dillo fans and fellow San Sabans had a great and wonderful holiday. The Lady Dillos have been back on the hardwood for a while and have started District play. We played two district games before the Christmas break, played in the Thorndale Tournament over Christmas and played our third district game last Friday. We’re in a bit of unchartered territory as we currently have a 1-2 record in district. We’ve lost to Hico and Comanche since our last article and captured our first district win over Early last week.

We lost to Hico 46-41 on our home floor which has not happened very often in district over the past couple of years. We played very sporadically against the Lady Tigers. We had a very, very slow start to this game and fell behind 11-2 after one quarter of play and could never really get back into the game. We cut the lead to four on a few occassions in the second half but every time it looked like we would make a run, the Lady Tigers countered and we suffered a tough loss. Haylee Oliver lead us in scoring with 18 while Danessa Vasquez chipped in 8 followed by Tarah Crosby with 5 and Karlee Cromer and Johna Reavis with 4 each. After this game we talked about not letting this loss turn into another. The following Friday we played the Maidens from Comanche. The start to this game seemed like we were really ready to play as we jumped on our host quickly and had them down 13-0 midway through the first quarter. The last seven possessions of the first quarter had five turnovers with

them and we let Comanche back into the game. We had a 24-19 lead at halftime but I didn’t feel good going into the second half. Ashley Pulatie hit 5 big points for us to help push our lead to 8 during the third quarter but we gave up two big three pointers by the Drews kid and the Maidens knotted the score late in the third quarter.

The fourth quarter was back and forth and we finally tied up the game with a little over a minute left on a three ball by Danessa Vasquez. We then proceeded to foul and turn the ball over which doomed us down the stretch. There was really nothing to be said after the game. We had a golden opportunity to steal a big win on the road but it didn’t happen. Danessa lead us in scoring with 15 followed by Haylee with 14. Jaena Edwards chipped in 6 and Ashley added 5 points.

The break probably came at a good time for us. We took ten days off and then headed east to the Thorndale Tournament. We trounced Mumford to open the tournament 56-23. Haylee had a big game netting 24 points followed by Joannah Crosby with 7 and Danessa and Tarah with 6 each. We then played another game that night and defeated a ranked Falls City squad soundly by the score of 61-27. We fell behind early 8-2 but quickly caught fire and took a 25-17 lead in at halftime. We came out in the second half and really played well. We shot well, played good defense, and gave them fits with our jump defense. Haylee Oliver lead us with 26 points followed by Johna Reavis with 14 and Tarah Crosby with 10. All our guards did a great job of running and jumping!!! A big win was followed up by a great Taco Cabana meal in Georgetown as we settled in for a long voyage back home. We didn’t play until 6:30 the next day so the late driving didn’t hurt us as we were able to sleep in and get some much needed rest before our quarrel with Crawford. We came out hot in this game also and took a 17-10 lead after one quarter of play which we never relinquished. We had the Lady Pirates down by as much as 23 in the second half and cruised home with our second tourney championship of the year. Haylee had a monster game netting 33 points followed by Johna with 8,

Karlee with ? and Nessa with 5. Once again our jumpswitch really gave their guards problems. Great job pressuring all night ladies. Haylee Oliver, Tarah Crosby, and Johna Reavis were named to the All Tournament Team.

Last Friday was pretty much time to step up and our Lady Dillos did in a huge way. We defeated Early by a score of 64-46. We were up 17-9 after one quarter of play and then caught fire and scored 31 points in the second quarter to take a 48-23 lead in at halftime. A few years back we scored 32 points in one quarter versus Smithville which I thought was outstanding and last Friday was pretty much some of the same great shooting. Early wouldn’t go away which I knew they wouldn’t. Kristi Sandoval is their new coach and she does a great job. Early actually got the lead down to 14 at one point in the fourth quarter but we settled down and got our first district win of the year. Haylee scored 25 points to lead all scorers followed by Tarah Crosby with 16 and Nessa Vasquez with 11. When we shoot like this we are very tough to beat.Our biggest challenge for the rest of district play will be to play with more consistency. We’ve shown flashes where we are a really good team and then we hit dry spells and have turnovers which kill us in key points of the game. One thing that has been consistent all year is our EFFORT and that has pleased me. Even in the Hico game when it was pretty much over, we called timeout and talked about competing to the end and our Lady Dillos did just that.

This week will be huge for us. We will have traveled to Dublin when the paper comes out. The Lady Lions have played us tough over the years so we had better have been ready to play. This Friday we will have a HUGE game with the Bangs Lady Dragons. We’ve had some "knockdown, dragouts" over the years and I see this one shaping up in the same manner. Two wins would put us right back in the mix of things as Bangs, Hico, and Comanche play each other this week. These three are all tied for first in the district at 3-0 going into Tuesday’s games. Like I said in an earlier article, this district will be very tough night in and night out. On any given night anyone can win so like I’ve told the girls, we had better be ready to play. Keep up the great work ladies. I’m very proud of you and hope we can Keep on Keep’n on throughout the rest of district play.

My SHOUTOUTS this week go to our parents and fans who made the voyage over to Thorndale. We appreciate your support and commitment to these ladies and the program. It was nice to see friendly faces in the stands. My next one goes to our VARSITY LADY DILLOS- thanks for a good first half of play and let’s finish the season with a GREAT run. You guys are all KEEPERS in my book. Our LADY DILLOS are as follows- SENIORS- Tarah Crosby, Danessa Vasquez, Johna Reavis, Jaena Edwards, and Haylee Olvier- JUNIORS- Ashley Pulatie and Paige Faught, and SOPHOMORES- Alexa Maxcey, Karlee Cromer and Joannah Crosby.