The Hayesville Lady Yellow Jackets came out and played tough on senior night against Robbinsville Tuesday evening. The Lady Yellow Jackets honored four seniors Lila Payne, Cecelia Jones, Kaylee Leatherwood, and Breanna Cothren. All four players started alongside Junior Lila Roberts in the game. Robbinsville showed why they are ranked top in the state, though, and even with a strong effort from Hayesville, the Lady Black Knights won 54-40.

1st Half:

The Lady Yellow Jackets played great defense and rebounded well in the first quarter. Unfortunately, Hayesville couldn’t buy a basket while getting some excellent opportunities. Robbinsville was steady and built their lead a few points at a time. By the time the first quarter ended, the Lady Knights had a 16-8 lead. The second quarter was very similar, with Robbinsville getting slow but steady production, with the Lady Yellow Jackets struggling on offense. That helped Robbinsville to a strong 30-15 lead at the halftime buzzer.

2nd Half:

The Lady Black Knights went from slow and steady in the first half to running all cylinders to start the third quarter. They quickly got their 15 point lead to well over 20 points. Hayesville played much better and slowly chipped away at the Lady Knight’s significant lead from that point forward. Five second-half threes from Lila Payne really helped the Hayesville offense. With Robbinsville having such a commanding lead, there simply wasn’t enough time for the Lady Yellow Jackets to mount a complete comeback. They did get the score into a respectable range but still lost 54-40.

Conference tournament bracket.

Leading Scorers for Hayesville:

Lila Payne 19 points

The Lady Yellow Jackets will next play in the conference tournament as the five seed, taking on the four seed Swain Lady Maroon Devils. This conference tournament game will take place at Swain, this year’s tournament host, with this matchup happening on Thursday, February 10th. To get updates or see how the Yellow Jackets have done, tune in to all the latest Team FYN sports coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and at https://claync.fetchyournews.com/category/teamfynsport