After dispatching of Riverfield Academy 48-42 on Friday night, Manchester Academy’s Lady Mavericks fell 45-37 to Central Hinds in the conference championship.
Manchester Academy head basketball coach Emily Poe was thrilled about her team getting this far because of their youth.
“We’re absolutely ahead of schedule right now,” Poe said. “We still have a young team. We’re a long way from where we started this year. We started off very slow this year. It took a few games for us to get our first win. I thought we had some talent. I believed we were going to be pretty decent after the Christmas break once we got some extended practice. That proved to be the case.”
After falling behind early due to foul trouble and an inability to score, Manchester stormed back in the second half and finally took the lead for good when Izzy Mills hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Lady Mavs a 3-point lead with 2:50 left in the game.
Riverfield was forced to start fouling, but Manchester’s Macy Huggins nailed her free throws, icing the game. The Lady Mavs held on to win 48-42.
Macy Huggins led the comeback with 26 points in the victory.
Seventh grader Lanie Potter, who played big minutes due to foul trouble, had nine points in the win.
Poe believes that Potter was an integral part of the win due to her play when some older girls were in foul trouble.
“We had three girls sitting in the first half with three fouls each,” Poe said. “Lanie Poter played well during that time. She had some big rebounds and big putbacks. Suzanne King made some great adjustments and was able to play the whole second half.”
Izzy Mills hit two big 3-pointers in the win to give her six points.
Suzanne King had four points despite the foul trouble.
Ashlee Sowell had two points, while Skylar Singleton chipped in a point.
The Lady Mavs met up with Central Hinds in the finals, and they were outscored 11-2 in the first quarter.
But Manchester fought back. They cut CHA’s lead to 22-16 by halftime.
The Lady Mavs were able to tie things up in the fourth quarter, but Central Hinds was slowly able to pull away to win 45-37.
Poe thought the comeback took a toll on her squad.
“We got down so early that it took everything we had to come back,” Poe said. “We tied it up late, and then we started exchanging shots with them. We got to the point where we had to foul, and they made their free throws.”
Suzanne King led the way offensively for Manchester with eight points.
Lanie Potter, Izzy Mills, and Elise Sowell each had seven points in the victory.
