The bus was late. Foul trouble. Bad rotations. Feelings…
Not excuses but problems that have plagued the Lady Trojans this past week. A road game at Northwest was delayed when the bus that was supposed to transport the team was late getting to Moorhead. Once there to play the delayed game, Lady Trojans Head Coach Tangela Banks said the troubles continued.
“It was already bad. Not good rotation. We got in our feelings. We got in foul trouble. And it went down from there,” Coach Banks said. “We had to wait for the bus to come from Oxford. They didn't have it on the schedule to come get us.”
The game tipped off, and everything that could go wrong did, and the Lady Trojans left Senatobia with a 63-56 loss. At press time, the Lady Trojans (with a Thursday game against Southwest not covered) are 13-2 overall and 3-2 in the MACCC. Northwest improved to 8-7 overall and 4-1 in the MACCC.
Janiah Caples led the Lady Trojans in scoring with 17 points and 16 rebounds (16 defensive and two offensive) while Layla Carter added 13 points. Lauren Nelson had 10 points and seven rebounds. As a team, the Lady Trojans hit 30% of the field goals – 19-of-63 – and were 5-of-16 behind the 3-point arc for 31%. And they hit 13-of-16 free throws for 81%. They outrebounded the Lady Rangers 49 to 46 but had more turnovers, 15-10, than Northwest.
Coach Banks noted that the rest of the league has been nip and tuck and no one has separated from the pack.
“Right now, everybody's kind of beating everybody, so that's how it's going,” she said.
The Lady Trojans had a home date with Southwest (12-5 overall and 2-2 in MACCC) then travel to Copiah-Lincoln (11-8 overall, 1-3 MACCC) on Monday, February 3, followed by a home game on Thursday, February 6, with East Mississippi.
Coach Banks plans to work on all the problems plaguing the team and oh, the MDCC Capps Center does train bus drivers, if needed.
