The Lady Panthers of Yazoo County christened their renovated gym with a 48-37 win over Clinton High School on Thursday afternoon.
For Yazoo County head girls basketball coach Patrick Nutter, the game was a pleasant surprise.
“It’s always nice to get a win in the first game,” Nutter said. “It’s nice to get ahead early. We played extremely well, and I think that was more so the reason for the win than anything they did or didn’t do. We had a lot of ball movement and attacked their press without turning the ball over. We really did a lot better than I was expecting.”
The Lady Panthers hit the ground running in the season-opener, taking the first quarter by a score of 18-9.
In the second quarter, Clinton struck back and got the upper hand by outscoring Yazoo County 13-7, cutting the Lady Panthers’ lead to 25-22 at the half.
Yazoo County came out of the half and took the third quarter by a score of 9-8 to make it a 34-30 game with a quarter left to play.
In the final quarter, Nutter’s crew put the game out of reach with a 14-7 effort, giving them a 48-37 win.
Deja Moore began her senior year with a 19 point effort to lead the Lady Panthers.
In her regular season debut coming off of a season-ending injury a year ago, Shanecia Weldon had an impressive 15 points.
The win will serve as a reminder for the Lady Panthers all year as to what they can achieve.
Anything less than excellence will be disappointing to Nutter.
“We’re going to expect that kind of play now,” Nutter said. “That’s the thing. We’ve shown we can do it. We know we can do it. Anything less than that will be a disappointment.”
Next up for Yazoo County will be a home contest against Riverside.
The opening tip on Thursday is set for 6 p.m.
