The Jena Lady Giants played a couple of home games this past week and continued with their dominating performance on both sides of the ball getting two more wins.
On Monday, January 13, the Lady Giants took on the Harrisonburg Lady Bulldogs in a non-district matchup. Jena came into the game with a 12-8 record while Harrisonburg came in with a 4-12 record. The Lady Giants’ style of play this season has been fun to watch. On defense, they play a full court aggressive man-toman defense that will test other team’s endurance while on offense the Lady Giants push the ball to the basket quickly looking to take the first best shot they get. This style can wear teams out if they are not used to it and has led to some blowout victories for the Lady Giants against over matched teams.
The Lady Giants have a lot of depth and can play as many as 14-15 girls in a game. They used this fastpaced style to jump out to a 46-11 lead in the first half over Harrisonburg. The Lady Giants would cruise to a 58-13 victory. Triniti Williams would lead the Lady Giants with 20 points on 9 for 12 shooting including 2 for 4 from threepoint land. Williams would also have three rebounds and three steals in the game.
The Lady Giants would have 10 different players score in the game. Hallie Phillips had 6 points, Ameera Jones had 6 points, Jacquelyn Brooks had 6 points, Kaylee Hardie had 6 points, Sophie Parker had 4 points, Lila Poole had 3 points, Heidi Crawford had 3 points, Lily Lacroix had 2 points and Ahja Dorsey had 2 points.
On Friday night, January 17, Bolton would come to town. Bolton has made some changes to their school as they are now called Bolton Academy. During the offseason, there were some changes made to how Bolton accepts kids into their school and a lot of their students left and went to other schools in the parish. During the next reclassification Bolton will more than likely drop down in class as they do not have the number of students that they normally would have. But Bolton is still a district opponent so it would be another District 2-3A home game for the Lady Giants.
It would be senior night as the Lady Giants would honor their four seniors in Kaylee Kemp, Braylie Poole, Noel Kimbrough and Karlie Kimball. Bolton came into the game with a 0-5 record on the season. The game would never be in doubt as the Lady Giants would lead 48-3 at halftime. They would go on to win 72-5. The Lady Giants would have 15 different players score in the game. Kaylee Kemp had 11 points, Triniti Williams had 10 points, Karlie Kimball had 8 points, Amerra Jones had 6 points, Braylie Poole had 6 points, Sydney Williams had 5 points, Hallie Phillips had 4 points, Noel Kimbrough had 4 points, Kaylee Hardie had 4 points, Maddie Kemp had 3 points, Jacquelyn Brooks had 3 points, Lily Lacroix had 2 points, Rylee Masters had 2 points, Sophie Parker had 2 points and Heidi Crawford had 2 points.
With the win, the Lady Giants are now 14-8 overall and 2-0 in district play. This week the Lady Giants have a big road game Friday night as they will travel to Bunkie to take on the defending district champions. Tip off will be at 6:00 p.m.
Everyone is asked to make the trip to Bunkie to cheer on the Lady Giants in what should be an excellent game.
If you can’t make it to the game then you can hear all the live action on FM 102.7 KJNA. If you are not in the listening area then you can download the MIXLR app and search for KJNAFM or go online at www.kjnafmjena. mixlr.com.
Photos from the Bolton game:
