By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Teams that are almost evenly matched on paper have to find some way to separate. Friday night the Munford Cougars made their annual trip down to the William Osteen Gymnasium to take on the host Millington Trojans. Both squads missed a ton of foul shots and some easy layups. Munford came out the gates running, jumping ahead 19-10 early in the second quarter. Then the momentum flipped with the Trojans leading 39-32 midway through the fourth quarter. Another tradition between the two rivals is playing a thriller. The game went to overtime deadlocked at 41-41. The Trojans were able to outscore Munford in the extra period to prevail 54-48. “We played decently in spurts,” Millington Head Coach Jewell Gates said. “We’re still doing that. That’s still one of our big things we’ve got to get better at. Tonight we did fight more than we usually do. Tonight’s reason why we fought a little bit more and effort and desire we sometime lack is because who we are playing. “But to be a great team you’ve got to do that every time you walk out there on the court whether it is Munford, Collierville, MHEA or Lewisburg,” he added. “Whoever enters the gym, we have to play at a certain level.” Munford’s level was high in the first 10 minutes of the game with Landon Winter scoring 5 points in the first quarter. Later Kylan Cunningham made a couple of buckets in the paint to go ahead 16-10. In the early moments of the second quarter, Kyree Cunningham drilled a three-pointer to make the score 19-10. Millington turned up the defense pressure and held the Cougars scoreless the rest of the first half. Meanwhile the Trojans got couple of baskets from Hunter Klutts and a Jamario Jones three-pointer to make the halftime score 19-17. The Trojans finally took the lead in the third quarter when Klutts drilled a triple. After a Taveon Collier layup the score was 22-19. James Farrow finally ended the Munford drought with a bucket. The Trojans never relinquished the lead and entered the fourth quarter ahead 34-30. Millington slowly built a 39-32 lead with foul shots. Munford responded with a 9-2 run using three triples. Two three-pointers came courtesy of Davin Bounds. The Cougars tied the game and had a shot to win at the end of regulation. Millington survived to play four more minutes against Munford. Bobby Macklin got things rolling for the Trojans with a layup. Then Klutts made a steal and raced to the other end for a layup making the score 45-41. Then the Trojans iced the game from the free throw line to earn the 6-point victory.
“It’s a quality win,” Gates said. “It’s something we need to get more of, beating quality people. Lewisburg was a quality to me as while. MHEA was a quality win. We didn’t play as well as I wanted but we pulled it out. We’re finding ways to win and pull out games like this.”
