Tuesday night was one that will be remembered in the history of Lampasas basketball as a group of young Badgers, most of whom have been playing together for years, finally reached the top of the mountain and won a district championship.
After a 71-67 win over Georgetown Gateway in what was a wildly entertaining contest in front of a raucous crowd in the Badger Den, Lampasas finishes the regular season with an 11-1 district record and the title.
As the final buzzer sounded, players, coaches, parents and fans found the closest person to them and held a big embrace or jumped for joy.
Although the season isn’t over yet, the district title did feel like the culmination of so much hard work for this group of seniors who have been chasing that goal since they were all on varsity as sophomores.
There were even tears shed by some players as they achieved this goal in the final game they will ever play in the Badger Den.
Senior Aidan Nuckles summed up his feelings after the game.
“It makes it even better that it’s our family, it’s our guys,” he said. “We didn’t just meet a few days ago. We’ve been together for years. Gone through numerous practices, I couldn’t even guess how many practices and games. But all that finally paid off, and we’ve got more to go get, too.”
The senior also set a new school record for career assists after picking up nine in Tuesday’s win. He has 502 career assists, passing the previous mark of 501.
The Badgers took a lead in the first quarter, and while the game was competitive down to the final shot, they never trailed after that point. They were able to close out the game as Peyton Sisson knocked down a free throw with four seconds left.
Sisson picked a good time to have his best district game and maybe his best overall game of the season. He scored 20 points in the contest and shot the ball with more consistency after struggling earlier this season.
“We worked hard for it, and I’ve been waiting my four years of high school to do this, so it feels good,” Sisson said.
He said it was funny that he has found his shooting stroke late in the season. His father told him he needed to straighten his elbow when taking his shot, and that minor change has paid off.
The leading scorer for Lampasas on Tuesday was the player it’s been most of this season, as sevenfooter Beau Patterson had 28 points. He presented a matchup nightmare for Gateway, as the Gators don’t have anyone who comes close to matching his size and weight.
“I want to give glory to God as always,” Patterson said after the game. “He’s kept with us through the highs and lows, and He ultimately was the reason we won tonight.”
The Badger also made sure to give a shoutout to Badger Nation for showing up and supporting the team. Patterson added that he can’t wait to see the fans hit the road with the team for the playoffs.
Head coach Aaron Nuckles said nothing this team has done surprises him, because he knows how good they are as basketball players and how good a team they are.
“There’s nothing that … any of them in that locker room do that surprises me anymore. It’s come to be expected,” the head coach said.
Nuckles has had the opportunity to watch this team grow, not only as basketball players but also as young men. Over the course of the past four years, he has coached his son Aidan on the varsity and has never talked afterward about his son from a parent’s perspective. But after his final home game and what Aidan and his teammates accomplished, coach Nuckles showed some emotion as he talked about the pride he felt.
“I think we’ve done a really good job of bottling that up and keeping a lid on it because [Aidan] doesn’t want that, and I don’t either,” the coach said.
“Everybody asks, ‘Man, you’re going to miss him,’ ” Nuckles continued. “Yeah, but it’s the group. It’s not just him. It’s the group, because they’ve done so many things, and they’ve grown so much.”
Nuckles said he realizes there are a lot of “lasts” happening right now, but that is the nature of what they do.
Apart from the scoring of Sisson and Patterson, the rest of the points in Tuesday’s game came from Aidan Nuckles with 10, Calum Mitchell with six, Dylan Polmanteer at four, Vince Shahan with two, and Tripp Stinnett added one point.
Although the team accomplished a big feat, the hope is the Badger season lasts several more weeks. That starts with the bi-district playoff round against China Spring at 8 p.m. on Tuesday in Academy.
The team will have to put the district championship behind them and move forward to accomplish more goals.
“There’s got to be some sort of exhale … we’ve got to let the kids enjoy it,” the head coach said. “There is going to be a time tomorrow that I tell them we have to put this one behind us and get ready for playoffs … we try to take the mentality of checking enough of our boxes each game.”
According to Nuckles, the last time a boys’ basketball team made the third round of the playoffs came in 2000.
This year’s group will look to be the first in over a quarter-century to accomplish that feat. *** In subvarsity action against Gateway, the Lampasas JV Blue lost 63-48.
