Mary Richardson grabs a rebound during action last night against Dyer County. Photo by Jeff Ireland
The third quarter was not kind to the Munford basketball teams Tuesday night at home against Dyer County in district action.
Munford’s boys and girls were both very competitive through two quarters, but not so much in the third period and both teams dropped their District 13-AAA openers.
Dyer County led the Lady Cougars 21-16 at the half before the Lady Choctaws (16-4, 1-1) opened the second half with a an 11-0 run that led to a convincing 62-43 win.
Zoie Springer led the charge for Dyer County. She hit four 3-pointers in the third quarter and six for the game to lead all scorers with 29 points.
Munford head coach Steve Poindexter was not pleased with his team’s effort.
“I spend 99 percent of my time trying to convince them to play harder,” the coach said. “When you have to do that you’re not going to win. We’re going to continue to lose games as long as I have to coach effort.”
Maiya Reed led Munford (9-8, 0-1) with 13 points, nine of which came in the fourth quarter with the outcome already decided. Brezia Cooper hit four 3-pointers to finish with 12 points and Mary Richardson added 10.
The boys’ game followed a similar script.
T.J. Buford hit a 3-pointer for Munford just before halftime to tie the score at 28-28, but Dyer County (16-4, 2-0) put together a 19-3 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters and went on to a 73-55 win.
Munford head coach Ryan Ross called a timeout with 4:34 left in third quarter and Munford trailing by just six, but the deficit hit 17 by the start of the fourth quarter.
Javaris Tolton led Munford (2-13, 0-1) with 16 points. T.J. Buford hit four 3-pointers to finish with 15 and Levi Poindexter hit three long balls for nine points.
Buford hit a 3-pointer with 58 seconds left in the first quarter to put Munford ahead 14-8 and the Cougars led by one point early in the second period before Dyer County took the lead for good early in the second half.
James Haliburton and Tyler Swift lead Dyer County with 17 points each.
Munford returns to district action Friday at home against Hardin County before traveling to Brighton the following Tuesday.
