Dougherty’s Jacqueline Buchanan honored on tough basketball night

ALBANY – Friday night was a tough basketball night at Dougherty High School. Before the girl’s game, Dougherty senior Jacqueline Buchanan was honored in her last regular season home game as she could not finish the season because of an injury. Without the senior under the basket, the Lady Trojans lost by 52 points. After that, the region-leading Dougherty boys, who had not lost a region game all season, lost to Carver, a team that had not won a region game all season.

The Lady Trojans will host a tournament game Monday against sixth-seeded Columbus. Dougherty’s girls have beaten Columbus twice by 26 points each time, but this time will play without Buchanan.

“Good players inspire themselves but great players inspire others!,” said Dougherty head coach Khadijah Ali. “Jacquelyn Buchanan is a great player not because of our record and not because of any stats, but because she’s an inspiration to this program, our school, and the Dougherty community. Her character on and off the court speaks for itself. Her desire to be better every day and her perseverance and hard work is unmatched. Every time she gets knocked down she gets right back up. I always tell my girls that a setback is simply a setup for a comeback. She’ll be back and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for her,” said Ali.

Ali knew her team was going to need time to grow this season after losing the top two scorers from last year’s region championship team – Kaylin Thompson and Shakeria Hallman. After losing five of their first six games, the Lady Trojans began to click. With shooting guards Jatiana Chambers and D’Asia Simmons running the floor and Buchanan and fellow senior Charity Bellamy controlling the paint, Ali found the right mix and Dougherty won 12 of their next 14 games, including an upset over No.8-ranked Monroe in front of a sell-out crowd in their home gym.

That mix disappeared, however,  when Buchanan, averaging 14 points and eight rebounds per game, went down with an ACL tear that ended her season. The Lady Trojans head into the region tournament against Columbus having lost three straight. Should they win Monday, Ali and the Lady Trojans will face Monroe again, this time at Carver in the region semi-finals.

The girls weren’t really expected to beat Carver Friday night, the boys were. The No. 8-ranked Trojans (13-11) had won six in a row and had not lost a region game all year and Carver (5-17) had not won a region game, but Friday night Carver beat the Trojans 71-69. 

They are a young team and they have been scratching at the door the entire season,” said Dougherty head coach Bakari Bryant of Carver. ” Anything is possible but when the smoke clears the cream always rises to the top.”

“Tough loss tonight,” Bryant said after Friday night’s game. “I always tell my young men that coaches look for players who play great late and make timely plays. We were not able to make timely plays tonight,” he continued. “We had plenty of opportunities to put the game away but we didn’t. I can’t stand losing but you have to know how to accept a loss. Congratulations to Carver tonight. They took advantage of their situation. I’m looking forward to seeing their growth seeing that they are so young. This might of been one of the toughest games I had to coach in my career and I didn’t get ejected.”

The Trojans might just get another shot at Carver Wednesday night. The Tigers come into the region tournament as the sixth seed and will play at Thomasville Monday night. If Carver wins that game, they will play Dougherty Wednesday night at Dougherty. The other game Monday night is Crisp County at Columbus. The winners of Monday night’s games will play Wednesday at Dougherty. Dougherty will play the lowest seed left, and Monroe will play the highest seed left.

Dougherty High SchoolJoeWhitfield[email protected]