So it was no surprise that in the end the team – and player – who had been there, done that, was standing over the upstart who hadn’t done either in two years.
In a matchup of Canyon ISD teams who split their two regular season meetings in District 4-4A, Randall and second-year school West Plains met in the biggest game between the two in their brief rivalry history.
While the seeds have been sewn for a compelling rivalry, things belonged to the established program on this night, as Randall took control of the game in the fourth quarter for a 71-57 victory.
For the second straight season, Randall (28-8) will play in the Region I-4A semifinals at Lubbock Christian University at 8 p.m. Friday. After what’s been a tough last three weeks, that seems like a just reward.
“Our team has had a lot of adversity going on, and they wanted to play for Les tonight and then when Layla (Romero) went down they wanted to play for her,” Randall coach Brooke Walthall said. “It was hard on their hearts. We have nine players on our team and I’m so proud of every single one of them.”
The Les that Walthall is referring to is Randall boys coach Leslie Broadhurst, who was forced to step away from his duties nearly three weeks ago when he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. More immediately on the basketball court, the Lady Raiders lost Romero, who left the game late in the second quarter after tumbling to the floor following a collision under the basket.
Romero injured her arm and her availability for the region tournament is questionable.
However, as usual for the Lady Raiders, Sadie Sanchez is always an equalizing factor. When her team needed her the most, that’s when she came up the biggest.
Sanchez had a game-high 29 points for the Lady Raiders, 19 of them coming in the second half, as she kept her team afloat offensively.
“(West Plains) beat us last time and that’s what put the fire up our butt,” said Sanchez, a junior who seems willing to stoke the flames of the simmering rivalry. “After seeing the score at halftime and what happened to Layla, that lit a fire under all of us to get the win for her and everybody else.”
The first half was what was to be expected between two teams who split their district meetings. Randall briefly led by 10 points in the second quarter and was up 32-26 at halftime.
It was even tighter than that in the first quarter, when West Plains held its only lead of the first half by one point. Randall got the bulk of its points in the first half from the perimeter, as the Lady Raiders made seven 3-pointers, five in the first quarter.
That was more or less the theme of the second half as well. While Randall never trailed West Plains (27-9), the Lady Raiders never fully shook the Lady Wolves.
“I think the first two games we jumped out to a big lead and that kind of relaxed us a little bit,” West Plains coach Kevin Richardson said. “This time they kind of jumped on us. I just thought we were on our heels a little too much early. We did the right things to get ourselves back in the game, but we never got over the hurdle.”
Randall led by as many as 11 points in the third quarter, but West Plains refused to quit. Dane’ja Agu-White and Piper Patterson both scored eight points in the fourth quarter, as the Lady Wolves pulled to within 54-51.
However, Sanchez scored on a drive to the hoop, then after a West Plains turnover, she hit a 3-pointer to make it 59-51, and the Lady Wolves never reclaimed momentum.
“Every single possession I was trying to get a bucket or get my teammates to score,” Sanchez said. “Whether the last possession was positive or negative, I just focus on the next possession.”
West Plains actually had four players score in double digits. Agu-White had 16 points, while Patterson and Ainsley Hall had 13 and A.J. Norman had 10.
The difference was, the rest of the Lady Wolves scored only five points. All nine Randall players who got in the game scored.
“It wasn’t just one or two, they all stepped up in the ways they needed to,” Walthall said. “We talked about that before the game. It doesn’t mean we have to be perfect, we just have to play hard every possession.”
Randall 20 32 48 71
West Plains 17 26 39 57
R- Sadie Sanchez 29, Kennah Thomas 11, Promise Sherwood 10. WP- Dane’ja Agu-White 16, Piper Patterson 13, Ainsley Hall 13, A.J. Norman 10. Records: Randall 28-8; West Plains 27-9.
