Shiny Quarter: Lady Trojan home finale scene for promising future

By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The scoreboard hanging on the wall of the William Osteen Gymnasium last Thursday night didn’t tell the whole story.
The final read Bolivar Central Lady Tigers 55 and the host Millington Lady Trojans 37. To add to the confusion of the 18-point decision, Millington Head Coach Nick Buford walked out of his team’s locker room smiling and optimistic.
“It was hard because I’ve been around this game for 25 years,” Buford said. “You’ve seen situations like this before. You go on a run like we did in the third. Your question as a coach when the fourth quarter starts, how much gas is left in the tank?
“I’ll be honest,” the first-year Lady Trojan head coach added. “I am not mad one bite because you saw fans surprised. You heard people cheering. Everyone in this gym saw what they’ve been wanting to see all year from this group. They saw just a blink of it. I think it is a good glimpse of what we will become.”
The young head coach with the mostly young roster started the night honoring his two seniors Sky Clark and Jamiya Turner. That duo would join forces with a roster full of freshmen and sophomores to give Bolivar a huge scare.
The Lady Tigers were not too afraid after 8 minutes of action building a 21-8 lead. The Lady Trojans kept pace with Bolivar in the second period going into the locker room trailing 28-15.
After Bolivar grabbed a quick 31-15 lead in the third quarter, the Lady Trojans responded with a 18-4 run to end the period.
Micaiah Halliburton got Millington started with 8 point coming on jumpers and drives to the basket. The scoreboard read 31-23. Next up was Halliburton’s fellow sophomore Jontavia Bonner making a steal and racing down the court for a layup to cut the deficit to 6 points.
After a Lady Tiger score, it was another sophomore to step up for Millington with Savannah Spearman hitting a bucket in the paint to make the score 33-27.
The Lady Trojans had a senior moment when Turner displayed her range hitting a jumper. With Turner moving from the low block to the perimeter to assist with passing of the offense, Spearman had more room to operate. The sophomore caught another interior pass and attacked the basket for a score.
Spearman’s third basket of the period made the score 35-33 in favor of Bolivar heading into the fourth quarter.
Millington finally tied the game at 35-35 when Halliburton scored a basket. After Bolivar took a 37-35 lead, Bonner made a tough shot in the lane deadlock the contest at 37-37. She was fouled and had a chance to give Millington the lead. But the free throw bounced off the rim and the Lady Tigers proceeded to go on a run.
“That 18-0 run to close it out, it was hard to get pass it because credit to Coach Rick Rudesill,” Buford said. “He runs a good program. But what confused us the most, this is the first time since I’ve taken this job we’ve seen a Triangle-2 defense.
“So to see somebody else have enough respect for us to Triangle-2 us, that lets me know two or three people on my side are stepping up and doing something,” he continued. “No disappointment, no angry, just really proud of the effort in the third. Just wanted to pull it out.”
Buford said the 2019-20 season has been filled with moments of progress and signs of hope. But the 8 minutes played in the third quarter was by far the best showing of the Lady Trojans this season. And coach encouraged people to check out West 10 Media on Youtube to see highlights from it.
“Best we’ve played all season, no doubt,” Buford concluded. I think we turned it over maybe 3 times. We were cutting, moving, it was beautiful. The bad part about it, our i-Pad was broke so we can’t get it on Hudl.”