TYLER, Texas — One year ago, the Tyler Junior College Apache Ladies were eliminated in the first round of the Region XIV basketball tournament by Angelina College.
Later that week, TJC received at at-large bid to the national tournament, where the Apache Ladies would enter as the 17 seed and go on to win the National Junior College Athletic Association Women's Division 1 National Championship.
That championship team featured a slew of talent, all gone and at the next level.
"We sent nine kids away and all those kids have had success this year in some form or fashion," Coach Trenia Tillis-Hoard said. "Like Trinitee Alexander, Emari Sidney, Taryn Wills, all of those kids are going to the national tournament for their teams."
TJC now looks to take another trip to Lubbock to defend their title, but with a strong showing in this year's Region XIV tournament, beginning Tuesday at Wagstaff Gymnasium.
It'll be a tougher task than last season after the Apaches lost their entire roster. Coach Tillis-Hoard forced to go back to the drawing board, recruiting eleven new players.
"We went from 11 players to eight right off the bat," Tillis-Hoard said. "And then two games into the season, we went down to seven. If you'd told me that we were going to go 28 games with a 20-10 record with just seven players, honestly, I'd say, we can do it but it's gonna take something special."
Tillis-Hoard calls them the "sensational seven," built up of all freshmen, finishing the year third in the Region XIV standings.
"We have been counted out since the beginning of the season," Apache Lady guard Kianna Bennett said. "We proved a lot of people wrong. So I believe that if we stay at it, we're up against any 15 players that we always play against -- seven versus the world."
To add insult to injury, seven became six after star guard Fanta Kone went down two weeks ago against Trinity Valley with a knee injury, another obstacle for Tillis-Hoard.
"You have to have the desire to say 'you know what, I'm not going to throw in the towel,'" Tillis-Hoard said. "Keep it coming, keep it coming devil."
With the injury to Kone, players like Victoria Dixon and Kianna Bennett will have to step up, something they've been doing all season long.
"If you really think about it, coaches really play a seven man rotation so we just have the right amount," Dixon said. "And we just have to play hard and just play as a team when we do it."
TJC enters the Region XIV at No. 3 and will take on the No. 6 Kilgore Lady Rangers Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Wagstaff Gymnasium.
