Millington Lady Trojans District 14AAA CHAMPS!

BARTLETTHSGRAD04 · February 24, 2010

Congrats to the Millington Lady Trojans on winning the district championship over host Arlington 49-43. Great game by both teams ! Fans of both schools should be proud of the effort these ladies put the hard effort in tonights game. I will give stats here shortly of the game by quarters. Again great game to Millington and Arlington.

millingtonfan2007 · February 24, 2010

Wew... Millington did not play very smart ball tonight nor did they play very good. Im happy for them but they did not play team ball. When Jasmin or any of the girls would drive and Arlington would collasp on them why not dish the ball off to the player under the goal wide open.... They were doing this in previous games but tonight was all for them selves.. Also the reffing was terrible... Either way im glad they pulled this game off but never should have been this close. One more thing.. i wish coach would let the subs play alittle longer just to get the nerves calmed down... Saw him take out #'s 42..30 after they made a small mistake after not 1 minute of playing. The starters make silly mistakes several times throughout the game but thats going to happen with all players.

BARTLETTHSGRAD04 · February 24, 2010

Millingtonfan2007, I agree that the refs were terrible on both sides and let them play more then what i was expecting. What a great crowd tonight also @ Arlington really impressed with the crowd. Both schools brought a good amount of students also. I must say Millington needs to rebound the ball alot better in the next few games if they wanna make it to sub state or even the state tournament. But what i was really worried about going in for Millington was Arlington's 3 point shooters and Millington held them to 1 3 point make all night.

MCHStrojan96 · February 24, 2010

Congrats Lady Trojans!!!!! Hated I missed such a great game. 3rd straight District 14-3A Title, now lets make it 3 straight Region 7-3A Titles!!!! The Seniors on this team are 132-13.....AMAZING JOB LADIES!!! We are all proud of you!!!

MCHStrojan96 · February 24, 2010

Article in Wed's Commercial Appeal.....way to go Millington!!!!

Another year, another district tournament win, another 30-win season for the Millington girls basketball team — though the sigh and shake of the head from coach Stan Gatlin would tell you the degree of difficulty hasn’t gotten lower.

“It doesn’t seem to come easy for us, but we get it done,” said Gatlin, after the Trojans (30-2) had to stage a late rally for a 49-43 win over Arlington (25-7) and its raucous home crowd in Tuesday’s District 14-AAA tournament final.

In the consolation game Craigmont (14-13) rolled to a big first-half lead, then held off Cordova (20-8) for the 45-41 upset.

All four teams advance to the Region 7-AAA tournament that starts Friday.

It’s the third straight district tournament title for the Trojans, whose senior class is now a remarkable 132-13, with a state runnerup finish in 2008.

Senior guard Jasmine Newsome, led the way with 22 points to earn tournament MVP honors. But only seven of them came after halftime, and for a time in the third quarter Millington’s offense seemed to revolve around Newsome driving to the basket looking for a layup or a foul. And she was getting neither.

The Tigers, meanwhile, spread the floor, finally hit a few jump shots and capped a 9-2 opening-run in the final period with a basket from 6-foot junior center Camille Alberson with 5:15 to play. That gave her team a 41-40 lead, and sent a shock wave of euphoria through the Arlington faithful.

Yet all those decibels never pushed the Trojans into panic mode. Newsome said there was no reason.

“We’ve been in this situation so many times, there was nothing really to worry about,” the UT-Martin signee said. “We needed to keep playing defense and rebounding, because this game was about layups.”

Senior Tamarah Brandon regained the lead on a putback off an offensive rebound a minute later. Then, with 3 ½ minutes left, she took a feed from sophomore Nikki Moffett and drilled her only 3-pointer of the night to make it a 45-41 game.

“I fed off the emotion of the moment,” said Brandon, who finished with 11 points.

She added, “This team isn’t quite to where the team my 10th-grade was, but I think we’re getting pretty close. We’ve got the intensity.”

Arlington managed just one more field goal the rest of the game, while Millington kept getting to the foul line, though it hit only four of its last 11 free throws — three by Newsome.

“She’s a great player, and that’s a solid team,” Arlington coach David Offerle said, “but we had them on the hook there for a moment. Only thing was, we couldn’t hit shots or get rebounds after that.”

Olivia Maddox, another senior, finished with 14 rebounds for Millington, while 6-1 sophomore Jasmine Prophet had five blocks, earning her a spot on the all-tournament team. Prophet had blocked 10 shots in the semifinal round.

“We get that kind of rebounding, and have Jasmine waiting in the middle, we always give ourselves a chance,” said Gatlin.

Junior sub Hannah Northam had nine points, Alberson and junior Rachel Oaks had eight while all-tourney pick Ariel Hearn, a sophomore, added seven for an Arlington program that has put together back-to-back 20-win seasons.

With 10 seconds to go in the opening game, Cordova junior Taylor Jeffries was diving for a loose ball when she took an elbow in the head, and was eventually taken off on a stretcher to LeBonheur Children’s Medical Center.

All-tourney pick Jamil Jefferson had 16 points, freshman Shenequa Foster added 10 to pace Craigmont.

All-tourney pick Shae Nelson and Ariana Hayes had 12 points apiece for the Wolves.

MCHStrojan96 · February 24, 2010