Yazoo City’s Indians and Lady Indians were each able to go 1-1 at the Humphreys County Shootout last Thursday and Friday.
Indians
The Indians of Yazoo found themselves in a tough contest on Thursday when they were pitted against South Delta, a team that had defeated them earlier in the season by a score of 88-79.
The scoring in the first quarter was tame, but the intensity was high.
In the second quarter of action, the Indians started off hot, taking an early lead, but South Delta went on a run to extend their lead. After a 19-8 quarter, the Bulldogs took a 30-17 lead into the half.
Turnovers and some timely, deep 3-pointers helped the Indians claw back into the game in the third quarter, where they outscored South Delta 25-15 to make it a 45-42 game with a quarter left to play at Humphreys.
The Indians, however, ran themselves so hard in the third quarter to fight back into the game that they had little left in the tank for the grand finale. They were unable to keep the pace they had created, leading to them being outscored 30-19, bringing the final score to 75-61.
On the following day, the Indians had yet another distinctly difficult challenge when they faced off with Riverside High School.
And it began with a hard-fought battle.
The war waged on in the first half with Riverside winning the first battle by taking a 28-20 lead into the half
Yazoo City’s pressure finally broke through in the third quarter, and the result was a 17-12 quarter, cutting Riverside’s lead to 40-37.
The war continued into the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
Sam Johnson hit a layup to tie things up at 52-52 with 2:13 left in the fourth quarter, equalizing the game for the first time in the second half.
Riverside bounced right back with a layup of their own to take a 54-52 lead, but Javarious Grady tipped a missed shot back to tie it back up.
With two seconds left in regulation and the score tied at 54-54, a questionable foul put Riverside on the line with a chance to win it.
Yazoo City dodged a bullet with two missed free throws, sending the game to overtime.
In overtime, the Indians soared, creating turnovers, hitting layups, and nailing free throws, and when the proverbial dust settled, they had taken the win by a score of 65-59.
Leslie Nelson had six points in overtime.
Rorecoss Willis and Javarious Grady each had two points in OT.
Sam Johnson rounded out the overtime scoring with one point.
With the 1-1 record in the tournament, the Indians’ record moved to 6-9 on the season.
Lady Indians
Stacy Leach’s squad began the tournament in quite a different manner than their male counterparts.
They, too, were paired up with South Delta to kick things off, but their game ended in a 48-24 victory.
The Lady Indians were able to grab a lead early and extend it at every turn. With a minute remaining in the third quarter, they scored five quick points to extend their lead from 30-20 to 35-20, a feat that had alluded them for most of the season thus far.
They put the final touches on the win in the fourth quarter by outscoring South Delta 13-4 to take the game 48-24.
On the following day, they had the opportunity to put together back-to-back wins when they faced off with Riverside High School.
A long, penalty-filled first quarter, where the Lady Bulldogs came out on top by a score of 8-5, showed the Lady Indians that it would not be an easy fight.
In the second quarter of play, the Lady Bulldogs outscored the Lady Indians 11-4 to extend their lead to 19-9.
After the break, the Lady Indians came out with a renewed energy and an offensive output to match it. Unfortunately for them, the Lady Bulldogs did the same. The Lady Indians were outscored 12-8 to push the score to 31-17.
The wheels finally came off in the final quarter of action, as the Lady Bulldogs outscored the Lady Indians 9-3 to make the final score 42-20.
The two games put Yazoo City’s record at 2-11 on the year.
The Indians and Lady Indians returned to the court on Friday night when Rosa Fort came to town.
Results from those games were not complete by press time.
