The Levelland Loboettes wrapped up their tournament portion of their schedule with a first-place finish in the Littlefield Basketball Tournament.
Beginning the tournament with a 9 a.m. game against the Roosevelt Lady Eagles, Loboette Head Coach Clay Barnett could tell it was his squads first game back from the holiday break.
“We started out okay, but it was a really sloppy game by both teams,” said Barnett. “We got worse as we went. We missed some easy baskets, missed a lot of open shots, and I felt like we pressed as a result of that.”
The Loboettes squeaked by the Lady Eagles 29-22. Despite a rocky opening game, Coach Barnett shifted his focus and encouraged his team to do the same for the next game.
“Whether we deserved to win it or not, we held on and got it done,” explained Coach Barnett. “I tried not to read a whole bunch into that one as far as effort or anything like that. I think it was first game back and I knew that we were better than what we showed.”
Heading into a rematch against the Littlefield Lady Cats for the second game of the tournament, Coach Barnett knew that team would be out for revenge after the Loboettes took a win from the Lady Cats in a previous tournament.
Before the game kicked off, Coach Barnett assured his team that every win won’t be pretty. Ugly wins come with playing the game and he told his team that getting the job done is important.
“I knew the girls realized they didn’t play very well in the first game and I told them all we can control is our effort and we’ve got to do the little things that help us win,” said Coach Barnett. “Still a bit of a sloppy game, but I thought our effort was way better. We played hard did a lot of good things defensively. We definitely made some improvements and strides from the first game.”
Taking a 40-32 win to keep their good fortune and standing in the tournament, the Loboettes took their positive momentum into the final game against the Clarendon Lady Broncos.
“The championship game might have been our best game since maybe the Springtown Tournament,” said Barnett. “We did some good things offensively and defensively. Clarendon made a couple of runs at us to cut our lead and we held strong continuing to battle.”
Getting the job done, the Loboettes battled through the entire bracket and defeated the Lady Broncos, 57-43. While adding a first place tournament trophy for the Loboette squad, Coach Barnett notched a career milestone of 500 wins during the tournament.
“For me, it’s kind of hard to enjoy moments like these because it takes a while to sink in, but then it’s always nice to look back after the fact,” said Coach Barnett. “After the game, I started getting text messages from friends, people that I’ve coached against, other coaches, people I coached with, and other former players. That was neat because like I said, you start you get to start thinking about some of the other teams that you that you coached.”
Spending 13 years as a head coach and 10 of those years as the head of the Loboette basketball program, Coach Barnett added that 300 career wins at Levelland alone is closer than most realize.
“I joke around and say that I am getting old and there is some truth to that, but I’ve been blessed to have good kids,” said Barnett. “I didn’t make any of those baskets. I didn’t do any of that, but I’ve been blessed to be able to work with those guys and as a result they’ve won a lot of games.”
Getting prepared for the back half of the seasons schedule, Coach Barnett and his team will shift their focus towards district play.
Starting district in Big Spring Friday, the Loboettes will be looking to put all aspects of their game together for an opening district win.
“We’ve had some success at Big Springs, but obviously this is a new year,” said Coach Barnett. Coach Barnett will be looking for his team to adopt the same mindset his team had against Clarendon in the tournament.
“It’s kind of about us,” explained Coach Barnett. “We’ll scheme, game plan for them and for some individual players that they have, but are we going to be willing to rebound, defend, run the floor, get on the floor.
Having consistency across all phases of the game is what Coach Barnett believes will give his team more than enough to earn wins in district play.
“If we do those things, I think we have a great chance to start out with a win,” said Coach Barnett.