Yazoo County’s Lady Panthers will move on to the second round of the MHSAA basketball playoff after defeating Aberdeen 49-31 on Monday night.
Yazoo County head basketball coach Patrick Nutter is pleased with how his team has played as of late.
“We’ve picked it up lately,” Nutter said. “Our leadership has really been better. We played really well early, and we finished strong. We’re learning how to finish games.”
The Lady Panthers came out and played stifling defense in the first quarter of play.
Nutter’s squad held Aberdeen to a single point in the first quarter and scored 13 points to gain a substantial early lead.
The second quarter of play was closer, but Yazoo County still outscored Aberdeen 11-7 to extend their lead to 24-8 at the half.
Just as it looked as if the game would get out of hand in a hurry, the Lady Bulldogs responded in the third quarter with a scoring outburst.
Aberdeen outscored Yazoo County 21-12 to cut the lead to 36-29.
According to Nutter, the third quarter nearly cost his team its lead.
“We had a really bad third quarter,” Nutter said. “We weren’t moving our feet. We just came out flat. They hit some 3-pointers, and they actually cut the score to three at one point. We came back and finished the quarter strong, but we can’t have lapses like that.”
In the fourth quarter, the Lady Panthers came back out and dominated once again. They iced the game with 13-2 performance in the final quarter, winning the game 49-31.
Deja Moore led the Lady Panthers with 18 points in the victory.
Ciara Thompson was right behind Moore with 15 points in the win.
Freshman Ke’Anna Norwood rounded out the top three in scoring for the Lady Panthers with 10 points.
After falling to Velma Jackson 45-17 at the regional tournament, the Lady Panthers salvaged a third place finish with a 42-35 victory over Amanda Elzy.
Deja Moore was the leader in scoring in that game as well with 16 points.
Ciara Thompson had 13 points, and Jalena Allen had six points.
Yazoo County will travel to face Independence in round two of the playoffs on Friday night.
Independence is 25-4 on the season with a 9-1 district record.
The Lady Wildcats are coming off of a 69-65 win over Belmont from Monday night.
Tip-off for Yazoo County and Independence is set for 7 p.m.
