By PATRICK JONES

The Natchez Democrat

COLUMBIA — Cathedral head coach Peter Arnold said he could not put his finger on what caused the Green Wave to get off to a rough start, but they managed to overcome it and roll to a 61-31 win over Bowling Green School Tuesday in the first round of the MAIS Class AAA South State Tournament at Columbia Academy.

Cathedral, the No. 2 seed out of District 4-AAA, scored just six points in the first quarter. Luckily for the Green Wave, so did Bowling Green, the District 5 No. 3 seed.

“We got off to a ridiculously slow start,” Arnold said. “I don’t know if it was the long trip or what it could have been. Then we just started playing our brand of basketball. We started in a 2-3 zone and switched to a man-to-man about midway through the first quarter, and we steadily pulled way from them.”

The Green Wave also got the ball inside to post players James Allen Coley, Will Wallace and D.J. Batteste. Wallace finished with 10 while Batteste had six and Coley added five points.

Cathedral outscored Bowling Green 16-7 in the second quarter to grab a 23-13 halftime lead. It was all Green Wave in the second half.

“Once we got it going, it continued in the second half,” Arnold said. “We spread the ball around and established our big guys.”

Leading the way for Cathedral was senior point guard Jardarius Anderson, who led all scorers with 14 points. Arnold said when the Green Wave did not play well in the first quarter, Anderson was the only player who did.

Cathedral (19-11) will play again at 7:45 p.m. Friday at 7:45 p.m. against the winner of today’s quarterfinal round game between Simpson Academy and Central Private School. The Green Wave also secured a spot in next week’s Class AAA State Tournament.

Silliman Institute girls 59, Cathedral 57

COLUMBIA — The Cathedral Lady Green Wave almost came back from a 10-point deficit late in the fourth quarter, but Silliman Institute held on for a 59-57 win Tuesday in the first round of the MAIS Class AAA South State Tournament at Columbia Academy.

“We played really hard. It was a good game from start to finish for both teams,” said Arnold, who also coaches the Lady Green Wave. “At the end, we couldn’t make enough plays to pull it out.”

Silliman led Cathedral, the No. 3 seed out of District 4 53-43 before the Lady Green Wave went on an 11-2 run to make it a 55-54 game with just over a minute remaining in regulation. Cathedral went to a full-court press and tried to steal the ball, but the District 5 No. 2 seed Lady Wildcats were able to get a lay-up to go up 57-54.

“We cut it back to one again and gave up another layup,” Arnold said. “We played hard and just came up two points short of advancing to the state tournament.”

The first half went back and forth. The Lady Green Wave led Silliman 13-8 after one quarter of play and led one of the top teams in Class AAA 22-18 at halftime before the Lady Wildcats outscored the Lady Green Wave 18-10 in the third quarter to grab a 36-32 lead.

One reason for Silliman’s comeback was that Cathedral’s Elizabeth Smith got in foul trouble and couldn’t stay out of it. Arnold said that Smith only played half of the game.

“Smith picked up her fourth foul midway through the third quarter, and she didn’t play the rest of the third quarter. She probably didn’t play three or four minutes into the fourth quarter,” Arnold said. “We struggled to rebound without her. That had a big factor at the end.”

Marty Lewis led the Lady Green Wave with 15 points and Baylee Graning had 12 points. Cathedral finished with an overall record of 21-9.

“I’m just very proud of these girls. We have no seniors on this team. Everyone’s coming back. To win 21 games, it’s a great accomplishment,” Arnold said.