photo by Destiney Robb

Cathedral’s Charles Lee drives to the basket as Wesson’s Jeramy Smith defends during Tuesday night’s game at Cathedral High School. The Green Wave defeated the Cobras by the score of 69-64.

Cathedral uses 20-point quarter to beat Wesson

By Matt Burrowes | The Natchez Democrat

Published Wednesday, November 14, 2007

NATCHEZ — The Cathedral Green Wave (2-1) used a 20-point second quarter to pull ahead of the Wesson Cobras and win 69-64.

The Cobras used the hot hand of Josh Hood to take an eight-point lead at the end of the first quarter.

“They have always had good shooters,” Cathedral head coach Peter Arnold said. “We were in a zone defense to start with but had to change because of their ability to hit the long shots.”

The defensive adjustments paid off. The Green Wave held the Cobras scoreless for the first six minutes of the second quarter to go into the half with a 32-28 lead they never relinquished.

“We played against adversity all night,” Wesson head coach Ron Kessler said. “We got down in the first half and could never recover.”

Wesson took a defensive stand on Cathedral’s senior guard Juan Gray who had 14 of his 28 points in the first half.

“They were playing me hard tonight,” Gray said. “A game like this is good for us. It shows we can look to each other to score.

Wesson rallied in the third quarter to cut Cathedral’s lead to one but the Green Wave stepped the defensive pressure up in the fourth to put the game out of reach for good.

“We had 30 turnovers tonight,” Kessler said. “It doesn’t matter what level you play on, you can’t win with that many turnovers.”

Arnold said Gray showed he was more than just a shooter having seven assists.

“Juan is unselfish,” he said. “He wants to win. He is the type of play that will get his points but is willing to pass the ball to his teammates as well.”

Arnold said he was happy with win and it was the type of win that would give them a boost.

“This win shows we can play with the larger schools and win,” he said.

Wesson Girls 55, Cathedral girls 20

The Wesson Lady Cobras used a 36 point second half to down the Lady Green Wave 55-20.

Cathedral was unable to find a way to get around Wesson’s pressure defense.

Blair Brooks led the Green Wave with 10 points. Marian Allen and Anne Shelby Davis led the Lady Cobras with 16 points each.