In a nail-bitter of a matchup against the Estacado Lady Matadors, the Levelland Loboette basketball team secured their third straight district championship, 57-51, in overtime on senior night Friday.
Improving to 29-3 overall and 9-0 in district play the Loboettes will be looking to close their district schedule with a perfect 10-0 after Friday’s game against the San Angelo Lake View Maidens.
Trailing the entire first half, the Lady Matadors took a 15-9 lead in the first before adding nine more points in the second quarter to push their score to 24 at the half.
Staying in stride with Estacado, the Loboettes put together an 11-point second quarter moving the score to 2420.
Staying competitive, the Loboettes added 13 points in the third quarter with the help of freethrows.
By the end of the third quarter, Estacado only led by two points, 35-33.
With a gold ball on the line, the Loboettes put together another 13-point fourth quarter to tie the game with the Lady Matadors.
Heading into overtime, Loboette Head Coach Clay Barnett said the competitiveness of his team was going to be tested in a tightly contested game and overtime allowed his team to know what it is like to get over important bumps in the road.
Holding the Lady Matdors to five points in the overtime period, the Loboettes forced Estacado to foul.
With a packed gym full of Loboette supporters, each free throw attempt was done in silence. Each free-throw senior Laci White and veteran Carly Tienda sank, the crowd erupted knowing their third district title was minutes away.
White finished with 15 points in her last home game as a Loboette. Emery Smith had 12 points on the night.
Tienda scored 11 points and Leilani Sanchez matched her with 11 points as well. Olivia Velardez finished the game with six points and Ellie Phillips added two in the win.
Levelland shot 33 percent from the field, going 15-of-46 from the field as well. The Loboettes hit on just 5-18 from behind threepoint range at 28 percent but hit 19-of-25 from the free-throw line at 76 percent. Levelland gave up 36 turnovers while turning 36 Estacado turnovers into eight points.
“It was a little rocky starting out for us, but we stayed right there with Estacado,” said Coach Barnett. “That was my message to them at halftime.”
Even with the win, Coach Barnett feels like this wasn’t his team’s best performance on the season.
“We were only down four and I felt like if we just got a bit stronger with the basketball and a little tougher defensively with rebounding, we’d have a chance,” explained Coach Barnett. “I felt like we did that in the second-half. I felt like we did that.”
Coach Barnett added that his team could have called it after the second half, but his squad responded and was prepared to finish the game until the end.
“What I keep coming back to with this team is this team is they don’t tuck tail and run,” said Coach Barnett. “They keep battling, keep playing and regardless if we go down they keep fighting.”
Keeping the district championship in Levelland for another year, Coach Barnett was pleased to honor his seniors with a win.
“A lot of our kids are young and every opportunity you get to play in an environment like that is huge,” said Coach Barnett. “You hope that’s not the biggest game, that you’re going to play in bigger games in front of you. I think for this group that’s the case.”