Claim district win
Often times Amaya Ford can dominate a game and one might not even know it.
Sure, Ford often appears to be the best player on the court, but just how quickly she begins to stack up the production can marvel. Such was the case against South Panola last Friday night when Ford took the bull by the horns in the second quarter and left no doubts for the Lady Yellow Jackets.
Leading 18-9
after
the first quarter, SHS went on a 17-0 run to start the frame led by 13 points from Ford. She scored 21 points in the first half and finished with 33 points to give her the OCH Regional Medical Center Athlete of the Week honor yet again this season.
“She’s a great player and there’s no doubt about it,” Lady Jacket head coach Kristie Williams said. “You look up and she’s scoring 20 something points a game. You look up and she had 33 points
the other night. It’s effortless for her.”
Ford signed with Louisiana Monroe a couple of months ago and will continue her career in the Boot next season. She’s was selected as a member of the Clarion Ledger Dandy Dozen preseason and just two weeks ago was the OCH Athlete of the Week as well.
This season, Ford is averaging over 20 points per game in Class 6A with four rebounds and an 80% freethrow shooting percentage. She was quite efficient in the win over South Panola finishing 12-of-21 from the field and a perfect 5-of-5 from 3-point land.
As good as Ford was in the 76-51 win for SHS, she even opened up more for her teammates like Jada Odneal, who scored 21 points.
“She’s been phenomenal,” Williams said of Ford. “She is obviously our leading scorer which everybody knows, but her presence alone will cause defenses to change. She helps us in terms of leading the way and freeing up everybody else.
It’s wonderful to see how far she’s come since she’s joined us in her ninth grade year, but there’s still some things she has to work on to get ready for the next level.”
The win moved the Lady Jackets to 7-5 on the year and 2-1 in Region 2 play. It puts them in position to win the Region 2 crown when Germantown comes to the Nest on January 29.
There are still challenges ahead this week as SHS will play West Point on Tuesday, but Williams believes that her team will be ready. The Lady Jackets have to beat the visiting Mavericks by five points or more to get the No. 1 seed and that opportunity will be there because of the big win the team garnered against the Lady Tigers. Ford was a big reason for it.
“Division play is always tough, especially when you circle around and play the team that second time,” Williams said. “We knew it was going to be a battle and I felt like we came in with a strong game plan and, for the most part, we stuck to it. We did have some lapses along the way, but I think overall we handled what we needed to do and that was to get the win.”