The Yazoo City Indians and Lady Indians and the Yazoo County Panthers and Lady Panthers concluded their regular seasons over the weekend and have set their sights on their respective district tournaments.
Yazoo City
Yazoo City hosts their tournament, which began Monday night, while Yazoo County travels to Ruleville Central. Yazoo City’s tournament days are Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while Yazoo County plays Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
The Indians (8-16) finished fourth place in their five-team district and played Clarksdale Monday night. If they win, they would face top-seeded Gentry Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. The Lady Indians (3-19) finished fifth in the conference and played the Greenwood Lady Bulldogs in their opener Monday night. With a win, they will advance to play the top-seeded Gentry Lady Rams Wednesday at 7 p.m.
“I’m not really stressing on where we placed because we have a team of mostly freshman and sophomores,” said Lady Indian head coach Stacey Leach. “If we can win our first-round game in the tournament that would be a milestone and it will show how the girls are trying to come together as a team.”
Leading the way for the Indians is senior point guard Leslie Nelson. Nelson, who led the conference in scoring with a 20-points per game average, was a First-team All-Conference selection. Backcourt mate Sam Johnson received All-Conference Honorable Mention honors.
Lady Indian Vinaua Gates was also a Second-team All-Conference selection. She leads Yazoo City with a nine-points per game average. Lady Panther Aquasia Edwards was also selected to the All-District team.
Yazoo County
Yazoo County’s boys and girls both opened tournament play Tuesday night against J.Z. George. The No. 3 seeded Lady Panthers (13-10) played the Lady Jaguars at 7 p.m. followed by the Panthers and Jaguars at 8:30 p.m. Should the Lady Panthers win they will face off against Ruleville Central the following night at 7 p.m. The Panthers also finished third in district and with a win Tuesday night would advance to play Ruleville Thursday night.
“I kind of like our position,” said Yazoo County head coach Patrick Nutter. “We’re in a great spot. All we have to do is step up and play.”
The top four teams in each conference will advance to the first-round of the playoffs.
