Posted on January 8, 2016.
GIRLS BASKETBALL: Ripley 36, Millington 45
The Millington Lady Trojans let one slip away Jan. 5 at home against the Liberty Lady Crusaders.
After suffering a 50-44 defeat to their new district opponent, Millington welcomed another fresh foe to the William Osteen Gymnasium Friday night in the Ripley Lady Tigers.
Trailing 13-12 at the break to Ripley, the Lady Trojans were not about to allow another game fall into the loss category. Behind the duo of Tamia Aldridge and Glenda Garner in the post, Millington pulled away for a 45-36 victory.
“We’re getting better,” Millington Head Coach Bruce Marshall said. “Our effort as a team has been a lot better the last couple of ball games. The first half tonight, we missed layups. We were 0-6 from the free throw line. We were getting everything we wanted to get. We just weren’t making any shots.”
Millington missed so many shots only tallying 4 points in the first quarter. The Lady Tigers held the lead throughout the second quarter ahead 13-8 at one point. The Lady Trojans got aggressive and closed out the first half with the final four points.
“In the third quarter, we just kept attacking,” Marshall recalled. “That was our game plan. In the second half we picked up the tempo a little bit with the press and our size. It helped us get that lead and it kind of got us energized because the pace was too slow.”
BOYS BASKETBALL: Ripley 71, Millington 48
Learning how to win can be a tough process.
The Millington Trojans came up short 53-45 Jan. 5 to Liberty. Three days later, the Trojans had a chance to bounce back in another District 15-2A contest in the William Osteen Gymnasium. This time the inside/outside combo of Xavier Alston and Isaiah Crawley paid a visit to Millington with the Ripley Tigers.
Millington pushed the Tigers early only trailing 24-21 midway through the second quarter. But Crawley tallied 11 points and Alston led all scorers with 20 points to help Ripley prevail 71-48.
The Trojans fell behind 19-10 after 8 minutes. Then Millington settled down the tempo and used good passing to create offense outscoring Ripley 14-12 in the second quarter.
Coming out the locker room behind 31-24, the Trojans blinked and Ripley was ahead 55-36 heading into the fourth quarter.
“Turnovers and we lost our intensity on defense,” Millington Head Coach Rob Sabau said of the third quarter. “We only had a couple of turnovers there in the second quarter. We played hard on defense. We can compete, but if we don’t do those kind of things, we’re not a team that can just go out there and go through the motions and be competitive.”
