The streak is over: Randall girls basketball pulls out historic win with buzzer-beater
The entire Randall Lady Raider bench jumped up and ran to Layla Romero with the speed of the Randall cross country team. They collectively dog piled one another to floor, covered in smiles, sweat and maybe a few tears sprinkled in. Their half of Canyon's gym cheered in jubilation while Canyon's team and section stood in stunned silence.
This was the scene Friday night at Canyon High School following Romero's jumper off a rebound as the clock expired. The basket moved Randall ahead 54-52 with no time remaining, giving Randall a district win over Canyon. A buzzer-beating game-winner is exciting regardless of the context. Within context, though, this was a moment that will go down in CISD history.
The Canyon girls team had not lost a district game since the 2018 season until Friday night. More impressively, Randall (14-5, 5-0) hadn't beaten Canyon in girls basketball since winning the Kids Inc. Tournament in 2007. Romero was born in 2006. All of it made for quite the atmosphere.
"I'm so proud of our girls," Randall head coach Brook Walthal said. "We really prepared well and we knew it was going to be a game like this. It was not a perfect game and you have to give Canyon a lot of credit for what they did at the end there. I'm just really proud of our kiddos."
Romero finished with 11 points including the game-winner.
"(When I got the rebound) I figured there was only like four seconds left so even if I don't get it we go into overtime," she said. "I practice that shot every day in practice so (I took it)."
It was yet another phenomenal night from Amarillo Globe-News Preseason Player of the Year Sadie Sanchez. Sanchez made a ton of highlight worthy plays throughout the evening, ending up with 33 points. Her 3-pointer with 2:35 left in the game gave Randall a five-point edge and she hit a free throw with 24.5 seconds remaining to tie things up.
More: GIRLS BASKETBALL: Randall vs. Canyon
Perhaps most astonishing of all was Sanchez's nonchalant feeling about beating Canyon for the first time since the year she was born.
"Honestly, I wouldn't say it was that surprising," she said. "I mean, it was a hard game, but we prepared for it the whole season. We knew it was going to be tough but we put ourselves in these situations in practice so we were prepared."
Randall looked like it had the game wrapped up with a 51-46 edge with less than a minute to go. Jaylee Moss hit a 3-pointer with 53 seconds left to pull the Lady Eagles within two and with 24.5 seconds remaining, Addison Cunningham stole an inbound pass, got the ball to a wide-open Moss who hit another 3-pointer to put Canyon up 52-51.
More: BOYS BASKETBALL: Randall vs. Canyon
Sanchez's free throw and Romero's putback sealed the deal for Randall in the end, but credit Moss for making a ton of big shots down the stretch. She finished with 27 points on the evening.
Canyon (13-5, 4-1) will visit Pampa on Tuesday while Randall will visit Hereford the same day.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Randall girls basketball defeats Canyon for first time since 2007
