In a highly anticipated matchup between the 7A Jeff Davis and Charles Henderson, the Lady Trojans stole the show defeating the Volunteers 61-44.

“They had fire in their eyes tonight,” Trojans coach Dyneshia Jones said. “It has been a long time since we beat JD. We have a pretty good squad, so I knew we can handle them. It’s a great feeling right now.”

The Trojans (9-1) used timely outside shooting and a powerful inside game from Maori Davenport and deep shooting from Niaira Jones to keep the athletic Volunteers at bay.

“We didn’t do much wrong,” Jones said. “We did enough to win the game. I told the girls to set the tone. I told them if we set the tone and take the lead everything else will fall into place.”

With the game tied at nine, consecutive baskets from Jones put the Trojans up 15-9. The Trojans never looked back from there in the opening half. Mercer commit and senior India Blakely led the show from the point guard position and kept the Volunteers on their heels the majority of the first half.

The Trojans entered the first quarter with a 23-17 lead after the Volunteers went on a mini 5-0 run to end the quarter.

Midway through the second quarter Blakely made six consecutive points for the Trojans putting them up 35-20 and giving them their biggest lead of the opening half.

Jones sent the Trojans into the locker room on a high note when she knocked down a three from the corner, giving the Trojans a halftime lead of 40-26.

Support from the fans helped spark the Trojans throughout the game.

“It was a lot of fun for them to come out and see two great big girls playing,” Jones said. “That is what everybody wanted to see.

The big girl for the Volunteers is Jasmine Walker. The Florida State commit finished with a team high 24 points.

“With great players, you can’t stop them,” Jones said. “You can do a lot to contain them we just needed to get a closer to her tonight.”

After the teams came back out for the second half, the Volunteers made a run to tie the game. After cutting their deficit to 13 points the Trojans took a 30-second timeout to try and regain their momentum. It worked, and the Trojans went on a 10-0 for a 54-31 lead.

The Volunteers made an attempt to come back in the fourth but the Trojans offense was too strong for Jeff Davis to make a comeback.

Niaira Jones led the Trojans in scoring with 18 while Blakely and Davenport both finished with 16.

The Trojans will be back in action next Friday when they take on Barbour County.