Posted on January 7, 2016.
By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Munford’s Gabby Crawford takes a jumper over Millington’s Traci Clark Saturday night.
If the Munford Lady Cougars were making New Year’s resolutions, they might say they need to be more consistent. Over the holidays, Steve Poindexter’s group played in the Dyersburg Christmas Tournament against some elite competition with good results. Then on Saturday night to start 2016, the Lady Cougars traveled to Millington to take on the rival Millington Lady Trojans in the William Osteen Gymnasium. Munford played consistently for 32 minutes against the Lady Trojans to earn a 57-27 win. “I thought we did pretty well over the holidays,” Poindexter said. “We beat a good team in USJ in the first round of the Dyersburg Tournament. They were undefeated and beat a lot of good teams. They beat us in the first game of the year. So that was a good win. “We turned around the next day and played a good Middleton team,” he added. “I think now they’ve won 48 straight games. They were tougher than we were. We beat Dyersburg in the consolation game. So we won 2 out of 3.” Taking on three good teams gave Munford a chance to improve on two phases of the game — chemistry and toughness. Poindexter said toughness help win the USJ game and not enough helped Middleton outlast his team. “You have an opportunity to work on that,” he noted. “But I think we’re still not where we’re supposed to be as for toughness goes. We’re inconsistent with the effort from day to day. Until there is consistency in practice, we’ll have that. We’re 8-7 now. We’re a .500 team.” Munford got back over .500 beating Millington by 30 points. It was Shania Johnson with 8 points in the first quarter that helped the Lady Cougars jump out 14-4. She drained a pair of three-pointers in that stretch. The Lady Cougars held the Lady Trojans to a Jherika Brown free throw in the second quarter while scoring 18 points. Johnna Jones hit back-to-back three-pointers for the Lady Cougars making the score 24-5. Johnson and teammate Gabby Crawford hit buckets to close out the first half and make the score 32-5. The Lady Trojans had a better offensive output in the third quarter with 9 points. At the same time Crawford heated up with layups and mid-range jumpers. She scored 8 points in the period to keep the Lady Cougars ahead 46-14. Munford tallied 11 points in the closing quarter and Millington hit 5 points. Now both squad move into district play. The Lady Trojans will continue their first run through District 15-2A. Meanwhile the Lady Cougars will renew rivalries with Brighton, Hardin County and defending champs Dyer County. Poindexter said as of now his team is just a .500 squad and they need to play with more urgency. “That’s just the reality of it right now,” he acknowledged. “If we take steps in the right direction moving forward, we can get there. There is definitely potential there.
“This is something they have to want for themselves too,” Poindexter concluded. “They have several people around them who want it. But they have to want it. They’re the most important part of this thing.”
