Palmyra’s James showcases growing confidence by knocking down six 3-pointers in victory

PALMYRA, Mo. — Anna James’ confidence is growing, and her performance Friday provided sound evidence of that.

The Palmyra sophomore guard made six 3-pointers for her 18 points and provided a spark that catapulted the Panthers to a 55-29 win over Unity.

“I’ve really been trying to work on my confidence, and when I get on a roll I usually stay on it,” James said.

That roll began when James tied the game at 18 with 1:20 left in the second quarter by draining a 3-pointer from the left corner on an assist from point guard Clare Williams. Just 33 seconds later, James knocked down her second triple to give the Panthers a three-point lead, their first since the opening minute of the second quarter.

“My team really helps me out, too, like Clare is always cheering me on, keeps telling me to shoot, and that really helps me,” James said.

James helped fill the void left by Quincy University commit Sydney Compton, who sat out the final 34 seconds of the first quarter and the entire second with three fouls.

“Having Sydney in foul trouble is always one of our worst nightmares, I’m not going to lie,” Panthers coach Kelsey Stuart said. “But it’s always nice to see other girls step up and fill that void until we can get her back in the game.”

James’ third trifecta, which came with 5:20 left in the third quarter, gave the Panthers their first double digit lead, and with 54 seconds left, Compton drove and kicked the ball out to James for another three that extended Palmyra’s advantage to 43-23.

“We’ve always known that she can shoot,” Stuart said. “She’s still really young, but she’s really starting to gain that confidence in herself and seeing herself as what we see in her. I’m so glad that she had that opportunity tonight.”

James continued the trend of two 3-pointers per quarter with a pair in the fourth, the final of which bounced high off the rim, kissed off the backboard and fell through the net to stretch Palmyra’s lead to 53-25 with 2:50 left.

“I honestly didn’t think that was going to go in,” James said. “I was kind of surprised.”

It was just that kind of night for James, a night that Williams said will take the Panthers to the next level if it happens even more.

“We need her to step up, to have her continue to grow and gain confidence,” Williams said.

A rather sluggish stretch in the opening quarter resulted in a 7-6 Palmyra lead after the first eight minutes. Williams scored five points in the first 50 seconds of the game, and the Panthers scored just two points in the next 10 minutes.

The Mustangs opened the second quarter on a 6-0 run to take a five-point lead before James and Williams, who had seven points in the quarter, spurred the Panthers’ rally.

“We were going through the motions,” Stuart said. “That was not our game, not our style of play. I told the girls, ‘I hope this is the one and only time we play like this.’”

Mustangs coach Cole Thompson, meanwhile, was rather pleased with his team’s effort in the first half.

“In the first half, I thought we did a pretty good job defensively,” Thompson said. “We were sound.”

That changed in the third quarter when the Panthers outscored Unity 20-3, made four 3-pointers and held the Mustangs without a made field goal.

“In the second half, it was a lot of sloppy basketball, self-inflicted wounds,” Thompson said. “Sometimes our biggest enemy is ourselves. It’s really nothing the other team does. It’s just things that we do to ourselves, and we just have to work that out.”

While the Mustangs’ zone defense slowed down Palmyra in the first half, James said the Panthers got back to what they do best in the second half.

“We all just realized that we need to get our heads up and really focus,” James said. “We need to dictate the tempo of the game and not let the other team dictate how slow the game goes.”

Stuart gave credit to the Mustangs for limiting possessions and keeping the Panthers out of rhythm.

“We’re a fast-paced team, and our opponents are going to do that, slow us down to the best of their ability, and they did a great job with that. They really did,” Stuart said. “They gave us a challenge. The nice thing is when your two star players aren’t playing their normal game, you have other girls that will step up and get the job done.”

After the game, Stuart presented Williams with a basketball commemorating Williams reaching and surpassing 1,000 career points in the Monroe City Tournament championship game Dec. 14 against South Shelby.

“Coming back to my hometown, getting the ball presented to me, and seeing the crowd cheer, it just gave me goosebumps and made my heart happy,” Williams said.

The Panthers (5-3) will take on West Hancock in the Rumble on the River at 5 p.m. Saturday at John Wood Community College. The Mustangs (8-6) will have the weekend off before a road date with Hardin Calhoun on Monday.