By Thomas Sellers Jr.
MEMPHIS – Kicking off the district portion of the 2021-22 schedule to Bolton with a defeat was disappointing for the Millington Trojans.
Then a couple of days later the Trojans made a trip to Fayette-Ware to take on the preseason favorite Wildcats. Fayette-Ware proved why they are the frontrunners to win the district beating Millington 88-40.
“Fayette-Ware is a good basketball team,” Millington Head Coach Jewell Gates declared. “They are, they’ve been kind of walking away from a lot of people. We may have needed that. Sometimes you’ve got to get hit in the head to step up and be a man. We’re understanding that now that you’ve got to fight and that there will be some struggles.”
Picking themselves up, the Trojans had to regroup with a pair of challenges from the Raleigh portion of Memphis. Millington bounced back at Craigmont, beating the Chiefs 78-51. Then came a trip to Raleigh-Egypt Jan. 25 to take on the Pharaohs.
Once again the Trojans were victorious to even up their league record at 2-2 with an 88-74 win over Raleigh-Egypt.
“But stick together and be a team,” Gates continued. “And we can be the team we want to be a month from now. That’s what we’re looking forward to in the middle of February. After that Fayette-Ware game, it made us realize maybe we’re not as good as we initially thought. Which is fine.
“But we can get to be as good as we think we are or that we’re capable of being,” Gates added. “We’re getting there. Sometimes you have to get hit a little bit to get better.”
In the opening moments at Raleigh-Egypt, Millington was involved in a seesaw affair with the largest lead of the first quarter being 5 points. The Trojans jumped ahead 13-8 after a Chris Barnes jumper.
The Pharaohs responded with a 7-2 run to tie the game at 15-15. The score was deadlocked at 19-19 entering the second quarter.
Raleigh-Egypt came out firing in that period taking a 24-19 advantage. The Trojans proceed with an 8-0 rally highlighted by back-to-back threes from Seth Grandberry and Barnes.
The Pharaohs kept the remainder of the first half close only trailing 35-34 at the break.
The early moments of the third quarter were tight with Millington nursing a 45-42 lead. Then the hot shooting of BJ Gilmore helped the Trojans put the game away. After a Diego Reyes layup made the score 49-42, Gilmore drained a triple to give Millington a 10-point lead.
Gilmore opened the third quarter with multiple buckets. The hot shooting was contiguous with Grandberry getting in the act with a three-pointer to maike the score 55-42.
After taking a 61-52 lead into the fourth quarter, Millington attacked the interior with Reyes and fellow big man Josh Harris. A variety of layups from the duo kept the Trojans ahead comfortably.
“I don’t like losing but if you lose for a good reason and get better from it,”Gates said, “then it doesn’t go to waste.”
Gates said his team going into two traditional powers’ houses and winning in solid fashion proves the Fayette-Ware game was a necessary whipping.
“These are basketball schools,” he noted. “Craigmont State championship on the wall and here at Raleigh-Egypt a State Tournament appearance on the wall. Those schools and those people know about winning. We came into a tough environment and we played pretty well and got wins.
“Now we get to go home and play four in a row,” Gates concluded. “Let’s get four more wins and the district tournament is at our place. Let’s get two more wins. Then we go play a Regional Tournament hopefully winning two games there. We could possibly be in the Sub-State. We’ll see.”
