NEW HOPE — The New Hope High School girls basketball team capped its season with a 57-48 loss Monday night to Holmes County Central in the MHSAA Class 5A playoffs.
The Jaguars’ Dekyra Mitchell led all scorers with 29 points in the winning effort, while senior forward Jada Jefferson paced the Trojans with 10 points of her own.
New Hope head coach Nick Christy knew Mitchell was going to be a focal point and detailed what the plan was to stop her.
“We knew that she was a pretty good player — that she could attack the basket and stuff like that, so we were trying to rotate over on her and things like that,” Christy said. “That’s sort of why we switched to a zone a little bit to try and slow her down.”
New Hope’s three seniors — Jefferson, Lailah Henderson and Madyson McBrayer — all played their last game in the white and gold Monday, and now that Christy has been with the program for a considerable amount of time, he says that this group has been one of his most special.
“I’ve coached two of them for four years and one of them for three years,” he said. “Graduating my first couple of seniors that I’ve coached for four years, that’s always neat to be able to keep the girls in the program. We’re trying to build this program up, and that’s what it’s going to take — girls that are here from ninth grade all the way through.”
On the defensive side of the ball, the Jaguar pressure was a factor early on for both teams. After a half-court shot from New Hope’s Ta’mera Ross, the score sat at 28-27 Holmes at the half with both teams in the bonus. Fouls were coming early and often.
That pressure is what Holmes County Central head coach Luana Greer hopes to take on the road with the Jaguars to Vicksburg in their next matchup.
“The preparation (for next game) is just fixing us right now,” Greer said. “Cutting down on turnovers, boxing out a whole lot better than we did tonight and just preparing mentally, because at this point, everyone can play, or they wouldn’t be here.”
When Christy took over the Trojans program, they were a Class 5A school with only 10 girls on the roster. Now, with a deeper bench and a young squad, their eyes are on the future.
Christy mentioned after the game exactly how much youth this team has and how this offseason is primarily about developing those players to take the program to new heights.
“We hope they get committed to their skills and that skill development,” Christy said. “So that we can take them and progress them like some of those seniors…that’s definitely what we’ll be doing for sure.”
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