By Thomas Sellers Jr.
It took Millington Lady Trojans Head Coach Bruce Marshall longer than usual to exit his locker room after the season opener last Tuesday night in the William Osteen Gymnasium. The visiting St. Benedict Lady Eagles used pressure defense to prevail 65-19 over Millington. Not wanting his young team to be discouraged, Marshall took the opportunity to give his players the good and bad from the official 2017-18 debut. “There was a lot of good and there was a lot of bad,” he said. “Even though the scoreboard might now have reflected that, Coach (Jewell) Gates and I were talking about it on the bench. Individual players doing some good things, we’ve just got to get to the point to where we do it more often.” The Lady Trojans had highlights like Taylor Payne, Kiara Kemp and Alexus Jordan blazing up and down the court. Millington players like Sky Clark and Keyana Jones hitting tough shots. But the evening was dominated by the Lady Eagles. St. Benedict jumped ahead 25-3 in the first quarter behind a 19-0 run. Lily Gleneck got things rolling with a pair of buckets to make the score 4-0. Then St. Benedict started to attack from the outside with baskets from Alyssa Denegri, Kristina Ferris and Benise Duhart. Kemp finally got the Lady Trojans on the scoreboard by driving to rim to hit a tough layup drawing a foul. The three-point play made the score 19-3. St. Benedict closed out the opening period with the final three buckets. The Lady Eagles outscored Millington 26-4 in the second period to seize control of the contest. Younger St. Benedict players like Deja Pryor and Aliya Williamson made an impact with defense. Ferris, Duhart and Catalina Carrasco transformed those turnovers created by the freshmen duo to points on the other end. Later in the second period Pryor drained a triple to make the score 43-7. The Lady Eagles tallied the final 8 points of the first half to go into the locker room ahead 51-7. The Lady Trojans equaled their first half output in the third quarter sparked by Clark. The sophomore forward hit a pair of jumpers. And Jones nailed a shot that made the score 60-13 late in the third. St. Benedict still led 62-14 heading into the fourth quarter. New Lady Trojans like Jordan hit the court and was given the ball. Jordan had some good moments using her athleticism. Then there were moments you could see her freshman mindset. Despite a few setbacks, Marshall said Jordan and the rest of his team played a full 32 minutes. “They didn’t quit,” he said. “They kept busting their butts and trying hard to do the best that they can do.’ But the first thing he wants his team to work on after the St. Benedict contest is composure.
“We don’t have a Quisha that can fly like the wind,” he concluded. “We’re a different team. When we have opportunities to go score and we have the advantage like 3 on 2, or 2 on 1, we have to take it. If it’s not there we have to be more composed and set up our offense. I don’t think we really didn’t run our offense at all tonight.”
