It wasn’t the playoffs and didn’t really decide anything as far as the Amarillo High Sandies and Palo Duro Dons were concerned Friday night.
Try telling that to the teams and their fans gathered at the Amarillo High Activity Center, though, and you’d have probably gotten a nasty look. When it was over, it sure meant something to the Sandies.
In a matchup between two of the three teams tied for the District 3-5A lead, the second go-around between Amarillo High and Palo Duro contained all the intensity expected from two city teams fighting for the district crown with the playoffs looming. After the Dons won the first meeting between the two teams at Palo Duro, this time the Sandies reigned supreme at home, never trailing in cruising to a 55-43 victory and hanging on to a shot to win the outright district title with one game left in the regular season.
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Both the Sandies (26-7, 13-2 in district) and Dons (23-6, 12-3) had already clinched playoff spots, but Amarillo High in particular played like there was still something at stake.
“To have a situation like we had a couple of weeks ago when Tascosa came in here tied for first and they just kicked our tails, we have responded extremely well ever since” AHS coach Jason PIllion said. “Tonight I couldn’t be prouder of these guys.”
In that first meeting at Palo Duro exactly one month earlier, Palo Duro got the upper hand in the first half of district with a 54-44 victory. The Sandies didn’t exactly humilate the Dons in the rematch, but they nonetheless seemed in control most of the game after jumping out to a sizeable lead in the first quarter.
Amarillo High led 20-9 at the end of the first quarter, and while the Sandies didn’t quite maintain that production offensively through the final three quarters, they still played tough.
“We got in a very similar mode where it got close in the fourth quarter but we kind of stood around on offense,” Pillion said. “I felt like we kind of owned that situation today and everyone collectively rebounded and competed for each ball. That was really the difference, not hoping it would happen, but making it happen.”
Palo Duro was never really out of the game, but after the first quarter, the Dons never got closer than six points. At halftime, the Sandies led 29-15, equaling their biggest lead of the game.
The Dons got within 38-32 late in the third quarter as their leading scorer, Cuda Clayton, finally came to life in the third quarter. It looked like a setup for a competitive fourth quarter.
Amarillo High had the ball as the clock descended toward zero, and Patch Parr threw up an off-balance 3-pointer which was off the mark with 0.7 seconds left in the quarter. However, Parr drew a foul on the shot and went to the free throw line, and made all three attempts to give the Sandies a 41-32 lead at the end of the quarter, and Palo Duro didn’t seriously threaten after that.
Those were probably the biggest points of the night for Parr, who had a game-high 17 points and lifted the Sandies in the first half with three 3-pointers.
“I was super excited for this game,” said Parr. “We’ve been ready all year and I’m thankful for all my teammates. My job if I’ve got an open shot is I’ve got to knock it down. The move (on the third quarter 3-pointer) I hadn’t been working on a lot but coach Pillion told us to get to the free throw line because that’s where you score points.”
At the start of the fourth quarter, Pillion put in 6-foot-7 Bill Ismail, who didn’t play a minute in the third quarter, to give the Sandies some much-needed size. Ismail started the fourth quarter scoring by hitting a three to make it 44-32 and Palo Duro got no closer than seven the rest of the way.
As big as Ismail’s three was, he was brought in mainly as a rebounder, as Pillion felt the Sandies were getting beaten on the boards more than they should have been.
“(Ismail) can really shoot it and offensively we were kind of standing around hoping that somebody would make a play,” Pillion said. “I knew he could relax us if he was playing confident. The message is to rebound, because when he rebounds he plays and when he doesn’t rebound he doesn’t play.and I thought he got a couple of big ones.”
Hud Schaffer had 10 points for Amarillo High.
Clayton led Palo Duro with 15 points, all of them in the second half to keep the Dons in the game. Kyron Brown added 10.
“It was just one of those things where the ball was not falling our way,” PD coach Marquis Loftis said. “We haven’t had too many of those games this year and I think it kind of got to us a little but and it tenses you up. It’s just little things like executing betterand knowing what we need to get offensively.”
While Amarillo High and Tascosa remain tied for the top seed from the district in the Division I playoff bracket, Palo Duro is guaranteed to go to the playoffs as the top seed in Division II.