The Varsity Lady Raiders started play in the New Year as they welcomed East Rankin Academy to The Raider Dome on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Patriots lost their best player, Adyson Tadlock, to a season-ending ACL injury just before the Thanksgiving break, so they were playing short-handed to start the game.

After a slow start, the Lady Raiders put on a defensive clinic turning turnovers into points and a 2-2 tie into a 15-2 lead after a quarter. They pushed it to 29-8 at halftime. They wound up forcing a staggering 42 turnovers, and 33 of those were steals by the Lady Raiders.

The second half saw the Lady Raiders continue their dominance by scoring fourteen straight points to start the third quarter and start the running clock with a 45-10 lead after three. Thirteen Lady Raiders scored as Emma Roberts led the team with 9. JA picked up the win, 49-15, to improve to 7-1 at home and 15-5 overall. The Lady Raiders will have a busy week next week as they travel to face the MS School for The Deaf on Tuesday and travel to Copiah Academy (conference play opener) on Thursday and Heritage Academy on Saturday.

University Heart Player with The Most Heart
Azaria McDowell - the senior had 7 points (3-6 FG, 1-4 3PT), had 2 rebounds, 6 steals and 1 assist.

For full stats of the game Click Here