Sarah Burdine heads to the basket during the Lady Raiders’ 43-34 victory over Central Holmes in the first round of the MAIS District 4-A Tuesday night. The Lady Raiders faced off against Tri County in the second round Thursday night for the third time this season.By TAYLOR MITCHELL
Sports Editor

One of the factors that plays a big role in district tournaments is the familiarity of a team’s opponent. For both the girls’ basketball teams of Manchester and Benton Academy, that familiarity helped spark a pair of first round victories.
The Lady Raiders defeated Central Holmes 43-34 and the Lady Mavericks won 51-32 against Winston Academy.
In Benton’s victory, the key to success was in the strategy deployed by head coach Mike Swindle.
“I knew the last two times we played them they weren’t really good at handling the ball,” Swindle explained after his team’s win. “So, we figured we’d step up the pressure on them and see what they do.”
The full court pressure defense threw Central Holmes off and forced them to dribble the ball up the entire court with a defender close by. It was a strategy that worked to near perfection.
“Just about. We wanted to get ahead and put a little bit of pressure on them. We pressed them the whole game and it turned out to be the key to the game,” Swindle said. “We limited our turnovers, but we’re still missing a lot of shots, missed a lot of free throws.”
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The Mitchell ReportHigh school sports is unique in that pure, raw talent can translate into state championships. Sure, there is some strategy and game planning involved, but I’ve seen talent overcome everything else. It happens more often than you might think too.
Whether it’s a football player who can’t be stopped, a basketball player who can’t miss, or a pitcher throws a no-hitter every time he walks onto the mound, there are countless examples of talent winning over everything else.
Tuesday night, though, I witnessed strategy winning over raw talent. It wasn’t a match up between great teams competing for a state championship. It was a game between two teams who haven’t stepped into the spotlight much and just trying to get out of the first round of the district tournament.
The Lady Raiders of Benton’s 43-34 victory over Central Holmes was an example of using strategy to overcome the opposition’s talent. To be fair, it’s not like Central Holmes is the MAIS’s version of Lanier, but I pegged the big Amber Ray to be the deciding factor.
In a way, I wasn’t wrong.
Ray was held to just eight points and only a handful of rebounds because junior Jenny Reynolds never let her get a clean shot off or grab a clean pass.
The other thing was head coach Mike Swindle using a full court press to throw the opposition off its game. Swindle said they don’t handle the ball very well and it showed when they had trouble getting the ball past the half court line.
Sure, talent is something everybody wants and, most of the time in high school sports, it prevails over anything else. But there are times when strategy and game planning overcomes talent.

Jammie Jamison sits on the court after a tough loss during the season.By TAYLOR MITCHELL
Sports Editor

It’s been a long basketball season for lots of teams across the state. For the Manchester and Benton boys teams the long season has come to a close. The Mavericks fell to Oak Hill 72-44 and Benton lost 46-41 to Humphreys Academy in the first round of their respective district tournaments.
The Raiders came close to advancing to the semi final round on Tuesday night, despite trailing 24-14 at halftime. Benton came out in the third quarter to score 13 points, cutting Humphreys’ deficit to just six points.
Several times in the fourth quarter the Raiders brought themselves to within three points of tying the game, but never could find a way to match Humphreys.
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Manchester senior Will Bearden drives to the hoop in the first half against Indianola Academy Tuesday night. Senior night proved to very entertaining as both games went down to the wire.By TAYLOR MITCHELL
Sports Editor

On Tuesday night, Manchester Academy honored its senior girls and boys basketball players. In their final home game of their high school careers, the seniors arguably played the most exciting night of games in their careers.
The Lady Mavericks won 50-45 against Indianola Academy after a missed three-point shot with eight seconds left to play by the Lady Colonels. The Mavericks fell 57-56 after Indianola made a put back shot with one second left to go in the game.
The Lady Mavs trailed Indianola Academy for most of the game, including a two-point deficit at halftime. However, the second half saw the lead go back and forth several times, but nothing really mattered until the final minutes of the game
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