Lady Jackets take district finale at Quitman, 78-41

Posted 2/15/17

Mineola’s Lady Jackets played an almost flawless final game of the year taking a 78-41 over the Quitman Lady Bulldogs last Tuesday night on the road at Ballard Gym.

The Lady Jackets finished …

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Lady Jackets take district finale at Quitman, 78-41

Posted

Mineola’s Lady Jackets played an almost flawless final game of the year taking a 78-41 over the Quitman Lady Bulldogs last Tuesday night on the road at Ballard Gym.

The Lady Jackets finished district at 7-7, just a step back of a playoff spot, and with a solid season record of 21-11. Quitman never could get going after a promising opening district win over Kemp as the Lady Bulldogs fell to 1-13 in district and 4-23 for the season.

Mineola Coach Billy Dunn was proud of the Lady Jackets’ improvement. “We made a major improvement from last season. We lose four seniors and return six freshmen and one junior. That will give us seven returners including three starters for next season,” Dunn noted. “We expect to get a lot of help from our JV which went 10-8 overall and 7-4 in district. We have high expectations for next season and hope to make a playoff run.”

Quitman’s Shelby Smith got the scoring started at 2-0, but Mineola tied the game at 2. Lady Jacket Bri McCalla hit a three-point shot and came back with a three-point play on a layup and a free throw to make it a 5-2 game and Mineola never looked back. A Brittany Walls trey cut the Mineola lead to 8-5 at the 2:45 mark of the first quarter. The first period ended with Mineola holding on to an 11-7 lead.

The Lady Jackets took over in the second quarter with a tough press causing numerous Quitman turnovers. Mineola’s Sabria Dean had a dominating quarter scoring 14 of her 18 points for the game. Mineola outscored the Lady Bulldogs 22-12 and took a 33-19 lead at the half.

The second half was more of the same as Mineola’s press was the difference. The Lady Jackets scored 45 second half points to 22 for Quitman.

In their final game for Quitman senior Brittany Walls had another fine performance with 18 points while classmate Smith pitched in 12. Sophomore post Utopia Henry continued to show great promise finishing with eight points and 10 rebounds. Allyson Corrier added a three-point score.

For Mineola McCalla had 22 points, Dean 18, Lauren Almuete seven, Jessiah Riley six, Kelsey Brewington and Taylor Griffin five each, Meghan Brewington three and Vanessa Spurgeon two.

The playoff teams from the district were top seed Alba-Golden who went a perfect 14-0, Scurry-Rosser, Grand Saline and Eustace.