By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
Slow starts have been one thing that has put Yukon in a hole early in the season.
The Millerettes had another slow start and it cost them in the first round of Bedlam on the Court.
Mustang took advantage of the cold Millerette start to run to a double digit lead and posted a 55-37 Central Oklahoma Athletic Conference win Tuesday night in the YHS gym.
The Millerettes head into the holiday break wit a 1-5 overall record and an 0-5 mark in conference play.
The Millerettes have had trouble getting their offense going early on and managed only four first quarter points in trailing 16-4 after the first eight minutes.
Offense has been the concern for head coach Roy Wyckoff, who said the team will spend the holiday break working on improving their offense.
“We are having such a hard time scoring the basketball right now,” Wyckoff said. “It is kind of a grind to score. We allowed it to affect us defensively for the first time.
“We gave up too many second chances and allowed them to score in transition. Mustang is good at transition and they crash the boards really well also. It a credit to them, but we gave up too much in those areas.
“We missed free throws early that dug us a hole. I liked our second quarter, we battled back, but the third quarter kind of doomed us. We just have to get better. We have to get better today than we were yesterday in every aspect of the game.”
The Millerettes led once in the game, using a transition bucket from Sydney Brown and a follow up shot from Meya Case to take a 4-2 lead three minutes into the game.
It was the last time the Millerettes would lead.
A trey from Talia Pogi put the Lady Broncos back on top 5-4. Mustang finished the quarter on an 11-0 run to take a 16-4 lead.
The Millerettes did battle back in the second quarter. Trailing 21-10, YHS used a field goal from A’munique Holmes and four Sunny Middleton free throws to cut the lead to 21-15 with 1:12 left in the half.
The Millerettes stayed within six, 25-19, before Mustang too control of the game using their height advantage.
“Mustang has really good size, but they also have good guards,” Wyckoff said. “Mustang is a really good team. Watching them on film on really like how they play. They move the ball well, shoot the ball well.
“If we don’t play well and if we are not disciplined offensively and take shots that lead to their transition, and if we don’t run and block out with a sense of urgency, they are going to get second and third chances,” he said. “I think we are progressing and are going in the right direction. We will treat the first semester like the pre-season. We can’t change our first six games, but we can change our next one.”
A Pogi trey with 5:17 left in the third opened an 11-point lead, 30-19. A Brown field goal and a steal and lay-up from Jaylee Watson cut the lead to 33-24. But, the Lady Broncos went on an 8-0 run and opened a 41-24 lead.
The Millerettes finished the night hitting 14 of 42 shots from the floor (going only one of 12 from three-point range) and was eight of 17 at the line. Mustang hit 19 of 46 shots from the floor (six of 19 from behind the arc) and 11 of 15 at the line.
Middleton led the Millerette scoring with 15 points, hitting four of seven shots from the floor and seven of 12 at the line. Case added nine points and Brown and Watson had four each. Cue’Tiera Haywood led Mustang with 16 and Jaki Rollins added 11.
