By Thomas Sellers Jr.
On the imaginary marquee of the William Osteen Gymnasium Friday night, St. Benedict Lady Eagles vs. Millington Lady Trojans. The matchup starred St. Benedict’s Taylor Barnes and Millington’s Glenda Garner. Well, that only lasted for about a quarter. Garner went down at the 2:28 mark of the opening quarter with the game tied at 8-8. Despite a brief return by the Lady Trojan senior center in the second quarter, Millington had to adjust without its best interior player. Meanwhile the Eagles had their go-to player and University of Memphis signee Barnes for the entire game. Barnes used crossover moves to get shots and got her teammates involved leading to a 67-28 win. “One thing that Glenda does really well for us, she’s a really good rebounder,” Millington Head Coach Bruce Marshall said. “Once she was out of the ball game, Tamia (Aldridge) was left in there. “We’re not a very big team even with Glenda,” he continued. “Our guards are smaller and they totally dominated the boards. We have to do a better job of boxing out and all five of us crashing the boards to make sure we get the ball. And they don’t just get to keep shooting, shooting and shooting until they make it.” Millington was able to control the boards and tempo early in the game with Garner on the court. Running up the floor offensively, Lady Trojan Keyona Johnson was able to hit a three-pointer to make the score 5-2 in favor of Millington. After a Garner foul shot and jumper, the Lady Trojans were ahead 8-4. Then the injury occurred with the score deadlock sending Garner to the bench. St. Benedict closed out the first quarter on a 9-1 run. The Lady Eagles kept taking advantage of the boards and second chances to go ahead 46-16 at halftime. In the second half, Millington couldn’t erase the deficit but the Lady Trojans displayed signs of progress from game one to game two.
“I thought we were a lot more composed tonight compared to Wednesday night,” Marshall concluded. “That’s a good sign. We have to get back to where we where in the summer. It was hard for people to pressure us because we were patient.”
