Before the curtain closed, though, the Amarillo High Lady Sandies showed they were the biggest stars of the show, at least for one night.
In a 3-5A season where No. 9 Amarillo High, No. 1 Lubbock Monterey and No. 6 Tascosa have taken turns beating up on each other and holding serve at home, the Lady Sandies hosted Monterey in the final meeting of the season where those three top 10 schools would clash with each other.
The script held, as a packed partisan house saw Amarillo High pick up steam late in the third quarter and pull put a 73-66 victory which still didn’t resolve who the best team is what might be the most top-heavy district in the state.
Amarillo High (26-5, 13-2 in district) is now a half-game ahead of Monterey (29-5, 12-2) and Tascosa atop the district standings heading into the final two games of the regular season. The three schools all split their season series against each other in establishing their superiority over the other six district teams.
Not only did the Lady Sandies get sole possession of the district lead for at least 72 hours, but they were able to put last week’s 55-49 loss to Tascosa behind them in decisive fashion.
“Losing that game like we did knocked us on our heels for a second but we bounced back,” AHS coach Jeff Williams said. “I think yesterday in practice we were really, really good. We knew what the challenge was ahead of us, and I thought we carried out the game plan extremely well.”
The first half was as tight as one would imagine, as Monterey’s six-point lead in the first quarter was the biggest for either team. Chavez and Ambrosia Cole combined for 15 points as the Lady Plainsmen took a 21-16 lead at the end of the quarter.
Amarillo High, though, controlled the second quarter. Ca’Nia Mitchell scored seven points and Kam Soukop hit all eight of her free throws, as the Lady Sandies led 36-31 at halftime, their biggest lead of the first half.
“I was so ready and so excited,” said Mitchell. who had a game-high 19 points in her final home game as a senior. “I knew it was going to be a good game from the start. It seemed like I had an open drive to the hoop the whole game so I just took it. Actually I’m kind of sad because I had a good year and I’m going to miss these girls and coach Williams.”
With the clock running down after a scramble for the ball, it ended up in the hands of Bella Edwards, Amarillo High’s best outside shooter. Edwards took a step-back 3-pointer from the left wing and sank it, giving the Lady Sandies a 52-45 lead at the end of the quarter.
“I love practicing that shot,” Edwards said. “I felt amazing when that shot went up. I felt all of the adrenaline coming up. I think this win shows that we could actually go  win the state championship. We’ve practiced for this for so long.”
The name never became a rout, but the Lady Plainsmen didn’t fully recover. Amarillo High stretched the lead to as many as 14 points in the final quarter, although Chavez made things more interesting in the final two minutes by banking in a pair of 3-pointers to make the score more respectable.
Only five players scored for the Lady Sandies, but they were all in double digits. Edwards and Tyler Held both had 16.
Soukop scored 10, and Emma Brown came off the bench to score 12, including a pair of 3s, all in the second half.
“When it comes to a game like this your rotation gets a lot shorter,” Williams said. “Those kids who were out there on the floor are the kids we need to win. It’s an extension of everybody who comes to work out every day and we preach that and that’s why we won.”
Cole scored 12 points for Monterey and Khloe Serna had 11.
That still wasn’t quite enough balance for the Lady Plainsmen, though. Chavez took over in the second half by scoring 19 of Monterey’s 35 points, as Edwards defended her and made her work for most of them.
“It’s a little hard to guard (Chavez) because she’s really shifty, but I feel like I did really good against her,” Edwards said.
Amarillo High has the open date Friday before closing the regular season next Tuesday at Lubbock-Cooper.