With a few minutes left on the clock, Charles Henderson head coach Dyneshia Jones did the only thing she could. With tears on the faces of the majority of her players, Jones turned and signaled for the reserves to enter the game.

The Lady Trojans were overmatched by Oneonta in the 4A semifinals Wednesday afternoon at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, and were eliminated with a 55-28 loss.

“We didn’t capitalize on their defense,” Jones said. “We basically killed ourselves on offense. They (Oneonta) are a good team and fundamentally sound. Most of the time we ended up with turnovers, and they got two on the other end.”

Oneonta never trailed in the contest and seemingly scored at will against the Trojan defense. The Redskins were led by Destiney Elliott, a Samford signee, with 29 points and 14 rebounds. Elliott ripped off six straight points midway through the second quarter to turn a seven point lead in to 13.

After Charles Henderson cut the lead back to six with a pair of treys from Kyra Scott, Elliott went back to work, scoring five of the last seven Redskin points of the half.

Jones tipped her hat to Elliott.

“It is hard stopping her,” Jones said. “If I had someone that could stop her or stay with her, it would have been a different game. Everyone I put on her tonight, and this is the truth, she scored (against).”

Charles Henderson made only two shots from the floor in the second half, nearly identical to their performance in the region title game last weekend. The scoring woes swallowed up sophomore guard India Blakeley, who went 5-of-31 from the field.

Blakely said she tried to push that rough day from her mind, but found it tough to do so.

“I try not to get frustrated, but I did get a little bit,” said Blakely. “I think my team saw that a little. I try not to let it get to me, but I may have let them down a little.”

Charles Henderson scored only 11 points in the second half, six from the floor. Oneonta tacked on 24 in the final two stanzas. Blakely led the Trojans with 14 points, while Scott added 12. Maori Davenport hit a pair of free throws to for the other Trojan points.

Despite the premature end to the season, Jones feels her team has nothing to hang its head about.

“I am so proud of my girls this year,” said Jones. “We were undefeated at home and made it to the state tournament. There is nothing for them to be ashamed about. We look forward to coming back next year. We plan on making it to the championship game next year, and winning the championship game.”