The Charles Henderson boys struggled with turnovers and endurance Friday in their 51-41 loss to Class 7A Jeff Davis Volunteers.

The Trojans held a brief lead at 6-2 in the early stages of the game, but the costly mistakes were too much for the Trojans to overcome.

“We don’t play smart basketball,” said Trojan head Carl Hollis. “We don’t execute well enough on offense, and we have too many guys trying to be selfish. Even with all the mistakes that we made we still hung around by nine, 10 and 11 points.”

Fatigue was another challenges for the Trojans.

“We got tired,” Hollis said. “That just means I have to go out and push them a little harder.”

The Trojans were able to stay within four points in the first half, thanks to Kordel Anderson’s six points and four more from Cyree Foster. Anderson finished with a team high 18 points. Foster finished with 10.

The wheels started to fall off for the Trojans late in the second quarter. With Charles Henderson trailing 19-16 the Volunteers went on 9-0 run giving them an 11- point lead.

The Trojans struggled to contain the size and speed of Jeff Davis.

“The thing is you have to do what you need to do basketball is all about getting position,” he said. “If I box him he can’t push me down. We have to learn how to fight. We are not fighting we are just playing.”

The Trojans came out in the second half and was able to get to within a handful of points before the high energy and fast paced Volunteers starting to wear down the young Trojans.

Hollis will use this game as a teaching tool for the young Trojans.

“If you don’t play good defense and you don’t push yourself enough in practice your not going to get any better,” Hollis said.

The Trojans will be back in action Friday night when they host Barbour County at 7 p.m.

“They are going to play the way Jeff Davis played tonight,” Hollis said. “You have to play smart and you have to play defense. We played good zone defense at times but we did some things that we shouldn’t have done in man defense.”