This time the Lady Saints had the Mavericks, but again it was not to be.
With three minutes left in the championship game of the MAIS Class 2A South State tournament, the Greenville Christian School girls basketball team led Manchester Academy by six points on Saturday at Sylva-Bay Academy.
The Mavericks had been a thorn in GCS’ side all season. They had beat them twice in the regular season and then again in the finals of the district tournament last week. All three of those games were over earlier than this time.
But, in the end, the girls from Yazoo City reached down deep to pulled out a 54-48 victory.
“The biggest thing is that now we know we can beat them,” GCS coach Brother Sandifer said. “We succumbed to the pressure at the end and we made a few mistakes. We are going to have to learn from this and get ready for the state tournament.
The Lady Saints will take on Newton Academy in the first round of the Class 2A Basketball Tournament on Wednesday, Feb. 24 at Benton Academy. Due to the winter storm, the Class 2A Basketball Tournament was pushed back a week.
Manchester Academy will take on Tunica Academy in its first round game on Feb. 23.
Along with their runnerup finish at South State, another bright spot for Greenville Christian was the play of Tariyah Washington. Washington, a junior, scored 23 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, dished out eight assists and recorded three steals in the championship against Manchester. Washington has now passed the 1,000 points mark for her career.
“Tariyah is an excellent player for us, and she really knows how to score the ball,” Coach Sandifer said.
