Charles Henderson had no trouble dealing with Rehobeth Thursday night in the first round of the AHSAA Class 5A, Area 3 tournament in Troy. The Lady Trojans crushed the Lady Rebels 70-31.

“I am concerned before every game because you never know what can happen,” CHHS head coach Dyneshia Jones said. “And we came out good and I was able to relax a little bit. We played great defense and got some easy layups and got the lead up and I was relieved after that.”

The Lady Trojans opened up the lead early, leading 24-5 after one quarter and 47-6 at halftime. The starters played sparingly in the second half as the Lady Trojans milked the lead and clinched a playoff berth with the win.

CHHS did not allow Rehobeth many shots and when they did get a shot off it was with a hand in the face. The Lady Trojans had their man defense working all night.

Jones said all three waves of Lady Trojans did well on the floor.

“Even the second and third string girls we had out there did a good job tonight,” Jones said. “And that is good to have. I could have had every one of my starters out there and they could have gotten hurt.”

Staying away from injury is always a positive for a team, but Jones said being able to play everyone helps in another way.

“This type of win helps with the confidence of the whole team,” she said. “If we would have won by 10 points I would have been ticked off, the team would have been ticked off and that is just the way we play. So the effort out there was great tonight.”

The Carroll Lady Eagles took out Eufaula 59-32 behind strong play from Takeelah March, who dropped in 24 points in the win. The Carroll squad was in the stands watching Charles Henderson in the first half, but cleared out before the third quarter began.

The Lady Trojans face the Lady Eagles Saturday night at 6 p.m. in Troy and Jones said traveling for the sub-regional round is never good.

“We have to be ready for Carroll and there is no need to travel,” she said. “We hate to travel and we want to have the other team travel and get tired. And that is what makes winning the area a plus.”

With a win Saturday night the Lady Trojans will host the loser of the Area 4 championship game Feb. 12 in the sub-regional round of the playoffs.

On Thursday, Niara Shipman led the Lady Trojans with 25 points, eight steals, four assists and four rebounds. Erica Henderson added 16 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals.

Camille Foster had 10 points and Amiria Blakely had nine points.

Click here for a photo gallery of Thursday’s action