Nationally-ranked Trinity Valley hits 16 3-pointers to knock off MCC

By Rocky Higginbotham / Sports Editor / Meridian Star

Just when the home crowd at Meridian Community College's Graham Gymnasium started to sniff an upset Tuesday night, DeShawna Blanks of No. 2 ranked Trinity Valley knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers.

Then, she hit another. And another ... and another ... and another ...

"How in the world do you stop a team that hits 13 or 14 3-pointers in a half?" MCC coach Hilary Allen said after the visiting Lady Cardinals did just that — outscoring his Lady Eagles 53-29 in the second half to post a 76-59 victory.

It was the first loss of the new season for the young Lady Eagles, who are now 2-1. Trinity is now 4-0.

It was a Jekyll-and-Hyde performance for the Athens, Texas-based Lady Cardinals, who made the stop in Meridian on their way to a three-day tournament in Marianna, Fla.

In the first half, Trinity Valley led for a grand total of 1 minute, 58 seconds. A scrappy-but-effective MCC team ventured out to leads as big as nine points — and was still up 30-23 at halftime.

But in the second half, Trinity Valley got hot from downtown. Really hot.

The Lady Cardinals knocked down 13-of-21 attempts from 3-point land in the second half — on their way to 16 treys on the night.

The first two came from Blanks, who hit her first five attempts from long range in the second half. The fourth tied the game at 40-all, and her fifth 30 seconds later gave Trinity a 43-40 lead.

There were actually six lead changes and six ties in the contest — the last at 50-all with 10:42 remaining. But the momentum had clearly shifted by that point, and the hot hands of Blanks and Shareese Ulis helped the Lady Cards to a 23-9 scoring advantage the rest of the way.

Allen said his team played as well as it possibly could defensively in the first 20 minutes — and about the same afterward.

"We didn't do much different," Allen said. "They just shot the ball really well.

"They got some better looks in the second half, but they also hit a lot of those 3s in transition and they hit some when we were guarding them, too.

"When you've got a top-2 or top-10 team in the nation ... whatever you want to call them, that's the kind of talent they have and they certainly showed it."

Trinity certainly has a rich history, with five national championships — the last coming in 2004. The Lady Cards have had 16 Kodak All-Americans and four NJCAA National Player of the Year award recipients. Last year, they went 27-6 and made it to the national tournament once again.

MCC, meanwhile, is coming off a 22-5 season but returns just one starter: Former Meridian High School standout Tiara Parker.

The Lady Eagles were also severely undersized Tuesday night, as Trinity sported four players on its roster who stood 6-foot-1 or taller.

"Trinity Valley just had so many options," Allen said. "They're big in the post, their guards are big and can handle the ball and obviously, they can shoot.

"But it's a great learning experience and a great experience for our kids to see that caliber of talent and to go up against a team of that caliber.

"We're young," Allen said. "Tiara Parker is our only returning starter. We've got a lot of freshmen and I saw a lot out of some of those freshmen tonight."

Meridian, behind a pair of 3s from Parker, opened the game with a 9-4 spurt before Trinity called timeout and responded with a 9-1 run to go up 13-10.

A scrambling putback from freshman Brittany Bohannon of Kemper County sparked Meridian again, however — and a basket by Bohannon in transition and another 3 from Parker pushed the Lady Eagles ahead 23-16.

MCC's biggest lead of the first half came at 38-29, and the Lady Eagles were up 30-23 at halftime.

A 3-pointer from freshman Tiara Logan of Philadelphia as the shot-clock buzzer went off pushed MCC back ahead by nine at the 18:48 mark of the second half, but that's when the tables turned.

Blanks hit her six 3s and Ashley Grimes hit another to put Trinity ahead for good; then Ulis got into the act with back-to-back treys. Allen called two timeouts in between, but Trinity had five 3-pointers in a stretch of 5 minutes when they turned a 50-50 game into a 73-56 lead.

Blanks, a 5-foot-8 guard from Los Angeles, was 8-of-12 from downtown in the contest and finished with a game-high 28 points. Ulis, from Toledo, Ohio, hit 5-of-8 long balls and scored 17 points.

Oklahoma State transfer Taylor Booze added 11 points, while 6-foot-2 Jasmine Nelson of New Orleans had 18 rebounds and four blocked shots. Six-foot-1 Tawatha Tucker also grabbed 10 boards for the Lady Cards — whose roster also features 6-foot-4 Chynna Burrell and players from Detroit and New York.

Parker led the Lady Eagles with 19 points and six assists, while the 5-foot-6 Bohannon scrapped her way to 11 points, eight rebounds and four steals. LaQuita Burrough, another freshman, scored 10 points.

Logan got all nine of her points in the second half and also handed out four assists. Ex-Philadelphia High School teammate Natonya McWilliams — a University of West Alabama transfer — grabbed nine rebounds and had three steals while Jerrika Williams also had nine boards.

Trinity held a 54-40 rebounding edge.

MCC continues action against ranked competition Thursday, as the Lady Eagles travel to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to face No. 14 Shelton State.