Advosports

PORT LAVACA - Although the Calhoun Sandies basketball team has made the playoffs only twice since 1987, for senior post Sage Sexton making a connection to the past is fairly easy.

Sexton's mother Stacy Nichols was a member of the 1987 playoff team and Sexton called her mom her No. 1 fan.

On Friday, Nichols can watch her daughter repeat her high school experience of making the playoffs by beating Beeville in a District 30-4A play-in game.

"She's always that one person on the floor yelling at the ref for a bad call or just cheering us on," Sexton said. "She really, really wants us to go far and knows we can."

Sexton is a four-year varsity player and has a chance to go out on a Sandies playoff team, like her mother did in her senior season 25 years ago.

After graduating from Calhoun, Nichols attended Texas A&M University and is now an eighth-grade science teacher at Travis Middle School.

Nichols said the experience of watching her daughter play for the same school has been special the last four years.

"It brings back a lot of memories and you pour your heart and soul in it," Nichols said.

In 1987 the Sandies won district and lost to Boerne in the area round. The only other team to make the playoffs was the 1999-2000 team that lost in the bi-district playoffs.

Current Dripping Springs assistant softball and volleyball coach Sherilyn Beard was there for both runs. Beard played on the 1987 team and was an assistant coach on the 2000 team.

She's pulling for the current Sandies to beat Beeville on Friday.

"They'll get to experience something not very many Sandies get to experience," Beard said.

For the Sandies, a five-day span saved their season.

On Feb. 3, Beeville beat Calhoun 55-50 and held a one game lead for the fourth spot going into the final district game of the season.

In order to have any chance at the playoffs, Calhoun had to beat Floresville, the No. 14 Class 4A team in the state.

The Sandies pulled off a 67-63 upset and since Beeville lost to Gregory-Portland that same night, both teams had a 3-7 district record and a tiebreaker was necessary.

"Usually when you get resurrected, it's for a purpose," said Calhoun coach Sherman Chew. "We were dead in the water Friday. It was pretty sad around here."

Calhoun has an overall record of 20-12 while Beeville is 18-14 on the season.

The teams split the season series with each winning 55-50 on their home court.

The winner of Friday's tiebreaker plays District 29-4A champion San Antonio Brackenridge in the bi-district playoffs. Brackenridge is 26-8, including a 16-0 district mark, and won it's district games by an average of 34 points.

Although the result won't show up on an official UIL playoff bracket, Friday's game is essentially a playoff game since a loss will end one teams season.

Despite the familiarity, Lady Trojans coach Katina Walker said sometimes strange things happen in tiebreakers.

"Both teams have gotten better throughout the season so you've got to expect the unexpected," Walker said.

Like the previous two meetings, Beeville will be dependent on leading scorer Victoria Elizalde. The junior point guard averages 16 points per game, but scored a combined 42 points against Calhoun this season.

"She's a legitimate little basketball player," Chew said.

The Sandies look to counter Elizalde's scoring output with junior wing Michelle Wagner who is averaging 15 points per game this season.

Wagner has teamed with freshman post Amanda Villegas to provide the Sandies an inside-outside combination.

Villegas is averaging 12 points per game.

"We've never really had a dominant post," Wagner said. "We've had really good post players, but she's more of a dominant post and she knows how to control everything."

Villegas will look to contain Beeville junior power forward Randi Maupin like she did in the previous two meetings.

Maupin is Beeville's second leading scorer with nine points per game. Against Calhoun this season she scored a total of nine points in two games.

"McKenna's a beast," Chew said. "McKenna's a player. Nothing against Maupin because I think Maupin's a player too, but McKenna can do thing in the paint that a lot of young women can't do because they don't have the strength or ability to do."

Although the Sandies have a district record four games under .500, the program has made strides since last year's 0-10 district campaign.

Sexton said the biggest difference between last year and this year is the confidence the team has played with.

"Last year we were so down on ourselves from losing as many games as we did, we just couldn't pick ourselves up," Sexton said. "This year we're just determined to make the playoffs."

Although some of Nichols' teammates have scattered. others like Rose Stewart stayed close by, very close by.

Stewart is teaches in the Calhoun High behavior unit and said she will be in the bleachers cheering on the Sandies on Friday and is planning a reunion if Calhoun plays Brackenridge. .

"We're on Sandie pride," Stewart said. "I'm going to call some of my girlfriends that used to play with me, then we're going to the game."

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