Both Yazoo City basketball squads 2019-2020 seasons’ came to an end last week against the Tigers and Lady Tigers of Ripley. The Lady Indians suffered a 72-37 loss, while the Indians were defeated 51-41.
The Indians finished the season with a 19-11 record while the Lady Indians ended the year with a 4-23 mark.
“This season didn’t end the way we would have liked, but nobody’s season ever does if you’re not the last team standing,” said Indians head coach Anthony Carlyle.
The Indians knew they were facing an uphill battle against Ripley, a team who had posted a 26-3 record prior to the contest. Early on it appeared as though the Tigers would dispatch of the Indians relatively easily as they stormed out of the gate and led 17-3 after one quarter of play.
Yazoo City scored seven second quarter points to Ripley’s 12 and the host team led by a score of 29-10 at the intermission. Refusing to give up, the Indians continued to claw their way back into the ball game in the third quarter and outscored the Tigers 12-11.
Trailing by 18 heading into the final quarter, the Indians rally continued and they outscored Ripley 19-11, but the early Tiger lead was insurmountable.
Sophomore Jacquarrius Collum led the Indians with 20 points and was the only Yazoo City player to reach double figures. Daon Henry added eight, Percy Green and Chris Burnett each scored four, Brendan Brown had three and William Grayson rounded out the scoring with two.
The Indians experienced highs and lows during the course of this season. Things were rough early on as they struggled to find their identity while navigating the always tough non-conference waters. By the time district play rolled around, however, the Indians had become adjusted to the way Carlyle expected them to play and it showed.
Yazoo City torched their district competition and finished with the No. 1 seed heading into the conference tournament. Unfortunately for the Indians, they finished third in the seedings, were forced to hit the road in the playoffs resulting in the eventual loss to Ripley.
Despite falling short of the ultimate goal, Carlyle is confident that this season marks the start of sustained success to come for his Indians.
“I thought overall we improved throughout the course of the season compared to last year,” said Carlyle. “When I first came, I said it would be a three-year process on cleaning the program and getting it back to its competitive ways. In year two, we’ve shown a glimpse of what we can be as guys get better and continue to gain experience. We will look to build on the success we had this year and work harder to be a better team next year.”
