The Yazoo City Lady Indians 2015-16 campaign came to an end Tuesday night with a 60-44 loss to the Gentry Lady Rams in the opening round of the Region 3-4A District Tournament.
The Lady Indians (5-21), hampered by early foul trouble, fell behind 15-4 after the first quarter of play. Three starters – point guard Destiny Henderson, shooting guard Janya Howard and forward Gabriella Campbell – all picked up early fouls and spent the majority of time on the bench in the first half.
The Lady Rams were able to take advantage of the short-handed Lady Indians. Without Henderson, the Lady Indians struggled to get the ball up the court against the Lady Rams’ pressure defense. At one point in the first half, Gentry held a 39-8 lead. They outscored Yazoo City 28-8 in the second quarter to take a 43-12 lead into the intermission.
“Three starters got into foul trouble early in the first half so I had to strategically make substitutions,” said YHS head coach Barbara Henderson.
The Lady Indians used the long ball to battle their way back into the game in the third quarter. Senior sharp-shooter Casharla Collins nailed two from deep range, Henderson added one and newly-acquired eighth grader Nyla Henderson hit a clutch three in the quarter as Yazoo City outscored Gentry 20-8 to narrow the score to 51-32 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Lady Indians continued to chip away at the Gentry lead and with 4:32 left to play had narrowed the lead to ten at 51-41. The Lady Rams, however, would not be denied as they were able to hold on down the stretch to pull out the win.
Collins and Campbell led the way for the Lady Indians with 13 and 12 points respectively. Destiny Henderson and Nyla Henderson each scored seven and Tykelia Green chipped in with five.
Said Henderson, “We had 18 turnovers in the first half. We weren’t even in the game. The girls could have quit, but they didn’t. We reduced our turnovers to three in the second half. Three-point shooting put us back into the game, but it wasn’t enough. We did a great job coming back and making a game out of it, but unfortunately we just ran out of time. We won three games last season and improved to five this year,” added Henderson. “Our players matured a little over the course of the season, but we’ve got to become mentally tougher. That’s the next step to becoming a good team.”
The Yazoo City boys fell 64-45 to Raymond High School.
The Indians faced Cleveland for third place on Friday, but it wasn’t upon completion by press time.
