The Lady Bison jump-started their basketball season by competing in Crockett’s annual basketball tournament, finishing fourth overall after three days of play. The girls went into the tournament with two preseason wins under their belt, but struggled initially against the larger schools in the tourney.

    The Lady Bison opened the tournament on Thursday with losses to Rusk and Crockett. In game one, The Lady Bison lead all the way up until the second half, but then lost their momentum and ended with a loss to Rusk 49-52. Game two saw the Lady Bison pitted against Crockett, ending the game with a 10-point loss.

    “We started missing easy shots around the goal,” sophomore Taylor Shelton said. “Our free-throws were horrible.”

    Thursday’s play didn’t start out much better for the Ladies. Paired up with Diboll, the girls found themselves on the losing end of a 48-67 final score. They pulled it together, though, and blitzed Anderson-Shiro in the their second game of the day, winning 49-42. Eleven of the team’s 14 players scored in the contest, but the defense had to keep Anderson-Shiro’s score down to come out with the win.

    “Offense does not win games, defense does,” head coach Jozette Jenkins said. “Taylor Shelton, Taryn Morman and Jessica Presutti contributed mightily on defense, grabbing rebounds and playing tough defense to round-out the team.”

    The Lady Bison defeated Hemphill in their first Saturday game with a final score of 49-33, but then lost in a rematch with Rusk by just one point, ending with their fourth-place trophy.

    “I put the team into a tough tournament on purpose,” Jenkins said. “This will only prepare them for what’s to come.”