Milan Drops Heartbreaker to Airport

The Milan Big Reds girls’ varsity basketball dropped a close game to the Airport Jets 40-33 Thursday. The game was close the whole night, but Milan could not buy a shot in the fourth quarter that saw a one-point lead slip away.

The Milan Big Reds used an aggressive team defense and timely shooting by Sarah Ramsey to go in tied 21-all in the first half. Corinna Schneider stole an inbounds pass and blocked a layup on a fast break to power the defense. Ramsey had eight points in the half, including two three pointers in the second half.

“We went in there and I had a big 32 up. I wanted 32 minutes; there were games where I’m getting 16 quality minutes and it’s the others that are killing us,” said head coach Jeff Scott.

The defense stayed aggressive to start the second half, with Schneider having two steals. Jaylynn Smiley played strong in the paint offensively, grabbing rebounds, drawing fouls and making layups. Smiley had 10 points in the third period, which saw Milan take a 31 to 30 lead.

The fourth quarter saw the Big Reds offense disappear. They missed layups and jumpers almost every trip down the court and only scored two points all quarter, while allowing ten.

“If there was one thing I could point to and say ‘That lost us the game,’ it was that we missed 17 layups,” said Scott.

Smiley led the Big Reds in scoring with 12 points and Ramsey had 10.

The junior varsity Big Reds won a nail-biter earlier in the evening 28-26. Lexus Kersey led Milan scoring with 12 and Madison Splitt had 8.

“[Our girls] wanted it more in the second half. We were much more aggressive and that’s what helped us win,” said junior varsity coach Bill Mitchell.