Seniors played until they couldn't

MURFREESBORO — Unless there’s a team without a single senior on its roster playing in the TSSAA basketball tournaments, every game will have a moment of heartbreak at the end when a player’s high school career comes to an end.

What can add to that heartbreak is when that career ends a few minutes early.

Dresden guard Millie Bryant experienced that Thursday when she had to come out of the game in the third quarter during the Lady Lions’ 64-52 loss to Summertown in the Class A basketball quarterfinals.

“She hurt her ankle in the first half and tried to come back in the third quarter, but she just couldn’t do it,” said Dresden head coach Jonathan West.

Bryant has been an important player for the Lady Lions the last four years, as has the other three seniors on the team — Kasey Gallimore, Grace Finch and Alex Sledd.

“Millie has been a great ball-handler and guard for us all four years, and when she went down that really made us have to figure out how we were going to get the ball down,” Gallimore said after the game.

The rest of the seniors and the starters got their moment to shine one more time for the team.

As the quarters turned to minutes, which then turned to seconds and drained Dresden of its chance at coming back, West pulled his players off the court.

There were plenty of tears and emotion on the bench. They joined Bryant, who’d been sitting on the end of the bench with her left foot elevated on the bench wrapped in ice with a possible fracture, according to West.

“These girls gave a lot for Dresden over the years,” said West about the class that made two trips to the state tournament. “We’re going to miss them.”

Reach Brandon Shields at bjshields@jacksonsun.com or at 731-425-9751. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon.

Michael Odom contributed to this report.