By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Eventually the day was going to come in the Jason Nichols Era of a defeat.
On Dec. 1, the Horn Lake Lady Eagles were glad to deliver the Millington Lady Trojans their first loss during the 2020-21 season. Led by sophomore standout Indiya Bowen, Horn Lake eventually pulled away from Millington to prevail 52-39.
Coming into the contest, the Lady Trojans were victorious in their previous two match ups. At full strength Millington dominated Macon Road and Halls.
“Weekend practice, two get hurt,” Millington Head Coach Jason Nichols noted. “We come into this game with two people hurt Savannah Spearman and Daijah Dailey. Those are two people we count on. So that stopped our pressure (defense). Now we have to recalculate. Did we shoot well? No. Once again free throws got us with us missing 19 free throws.”
The Lady Trojans were paced by Keria McGhee in the first quarter as Millington’s smaller lineup stayed close at 14-10 in favor of Horn Lake.
After a McGhee bucket in the opening moments of the first quarter made the tally 14-12, her teammate Bailey Boone deadlocked the contest at 14-14 with a basket.
Then Horn Lake responded with a 9-0 run sparked by an interior bucket from K’Niyah Porter. Bowen capped off the rally with a three-pointer to make the score 23-14. McGhee ended the Millington drought with a jumper.
Aubrey Young hit a triple of her own for the Lady Trojans that make the score 24-19. But Bowen hit timely shots including a late three-pointer to make the halftime score 31-22.
Bowen finished with a game-high 23 points with a variety of those coming in the third quarter. Bowen hit free throws, layups and jumpers that helped Horn Lake take a 42-27 lead.
Lady Trojans Boone and Micaiah Halliburton hit a layup and three-pointer respectively to make the tally 46-35 by the end of the period.
In the fourth quarter Millington received a layup from Tamya Dailey and a couple of foul shots. The score was 50-39 early in the final period.
Then the charity stripe betrayed the Lady Trojans with Millington players missing six straight foul shots with the score 52-39.
“If we make those it’s a totally different ball game,” Nichols acknowledged. “We finally got into the game plan, got up and down the court. We slowed things down. We limited Owens there in the fourth. But by then it was too late. We have to start matching the opponents intensity early and understand the harder we play the better we’re going to be.
“Losing Spearman and Daijah Dailey really hurt us,” he added. “They were kind of big and we were missing a post. We got killed on the boards a little bit and despite all that we were still in the game. We had a chance to win.”
Millington’s defense limited Horn Lake and the finally tally was 52-39.
“I just told them in the locker room, ‘We’re going to have speed bumps,’” Nichols said. “’We’re going to have pot holes. Tonight we hit a pot hole.’ I told them players don’t lose ballgames. Coaches lose games.
“They’re going to say Coach Nichols lose the game or the Millington Lady Trojans lose the game,” he concluded. “We’re going to get back in the lab tomorrow, look at film, make corrections. And shoot some more free throws and be ready to play Brighton at 2 p.m. Saturday.”
The Lady Trojans traveled up to the Rickey Fayne Classic and dominated the host Brighton Lady Cardinals 69-26. The duo of Jontavia Bonner and Micaiah Halliburton both dropped 20 points in the win.
