Yazoo County had mixed results on Tuesday night when it split a pair of games against East Side.
Lady Panthers 39,
Lady Trojans 35
The Lady Panthers got back to their winning ways with a 39-35 victory over East Side.
Yazoo County girls basketball coach Patrick Nutter hopes that it can be a turning point in the season.
“Any win is a big win when you’re struggling like we are right now,” Nutter said. “We’ve lost a lot of close games this year. Injuries and young players being forced to take larger roles have been some of the problem. We’re just not closing games like we need to be.”
Yazoo County took an early lead in the contest, outscoring East Side 11-8 in the first.
The scoring slowed to a snail’s pace in the second quarter with East Side taking it by a score of 6-4 to take a 15-14 deficit into the half.
In the third quarter, the scoring picked back up in a big way, and Yazoo County was able to double their point total from the first half with 15 points while giving up only 11, making it a 30-25 game with a quarter left to play.
East Side threatened to make a run at the lead in the fourth quarter with a 10-9 scoring differential, but it wasn’t enough. Yazoo County won 39-35.
Ciara Thompson led the way in scoring for the Lady Panthers with 11 points in the conference victory.
Deja Moore and Jalena Allen each had 10 points in the win.
Nutter was happy to see the three leading scorers balanced for a change.
“I’d like us to be more balanced in our scoring,” Nutter said. “I think we’re much more difficult to defend when we have more players scoring points. We have shooters that haven’t been shooting. They don’t look for the shot a lot of times.”
Destiny Epps had six points in the winning effort, while Ke’Anna Norwood rounded out the scoring with two points.
Panthers 58,
Trojans 76
The Panthers of Yazoo County suffered another loss this season at the hands of East Side by a score of 76-58.
The contest was a close one in the first quarter, and it looked to be anyone’s game. East Side outscored Yazoo County 12-11.
The Trojans extended their lead in the second quarter after outscoring the Panthers 18-16 to take a 30-27 lead into the half.
In the third quarter, things got out of hand quickly. The Trojans were able to score 29 to the Panthers’ 11 to make it a 59-38 game.
Yazoo County outscored East Side 20-17 in the fourth quarter, but the damage had already been done. East Side took the game 76-58.
Yazoo County will return to the hard court on Tuesday when they take a trip to face Velma Jackson.
Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
