By Thomas Sellers Jr.
ARLINGTON — Injuries weren’t going to impede the Millington Lady Trojans’ mission entering the Jan. 11 district match up against the Bolton Lady Wildcats.
Inside the Bolton Gymnasium, Millington Head Coach Jason Nichols’ main agenda was getting his interior players like Savannah Spearman, Madison Turner, Makenzie Chambers, Erin Alexander and Ayanna Ransom more seasoned.
Sparked by the guard play of seniors Kayla Dotson and Micaiah Halliburton alongside with Breanna Hulsey and Aubrey Young, the Lady Trojans dominated Bolton for a 78-28 victory.
“Coming in, no McGhee, no Bonner, no Boone, we had to have other people step up,” Nichols said. “Halliburton and Dotson did their part. You had step-up moments from my bigs. We executed a little better. But we have to slide over better on defense and stop fouling.”
Bailey Boone has missed the entire season because of her ACL injury. Jontavia Bonner went down weeks ago against Covington and Keria McGhee set the Lady Wildcat contest.
Millington controlled the perimeter and interior throughout the first half to take a 39-14 advantage at the break.
In the third quarter Alexander gave the Lady Trojans a boost with a layup and foul shot to make the score 43-15. After baskets from Chambers and Young Millington was ahead 47-16.
Then Millington 1K-Club scorer Halliburton took over the game with a steal leading to an easy layup to make the tally 49-16.
Halliburton got into the rebounding act with a put-back basket and hit a jumper in traffic during one stretch to make the score 55-17.
Then Dotson put the nail in the coffin to close out the third quarter with back-to-back three-pointers. Nichols noted since the holiday trip down to the Tampa, Fla., area, Dotson’s offensive game and confidence has improved.
He noted she will be the key to a successful February and hopefully March run.
“We have a tough one Friday we have to get ready for,” he said after the Bolton win leading into Fayette-Ware. “Then we’ll be back at full strength. We’ll get everybody back going and see what we can do.
My biggest thing was seeing if my bigs could dominate the boards.
“I think we really did that with Turner, Spearman, Alexander and Mckenzie Chambers,” he continued. “We dominated the paint. That’s the key in 2022. I know I got guard play, now I need to see if we can dominate the paint in all phases.”
Nichols said a healthy roster, reliable perimeter play and emerging bigs is the recipe for a Lady Trojan banner season.
“We’re hosting the district, we could be district champs if everything goes right,” he concluded. “We’ll be in good shape and that’s one of the goals we’ve set. The first step. We have other key contributors step up with Ransom and Hulsey and Young. Kayla Dotson has really been going. She had 19 in Tampa. She’s been going ever since.”
