NATCHEZ &045; Not giving in as the lowest seed in the Division 6-5A tournament was the easy part.

Putting away Forest Hill on Friday night was by far the tougher task.

Natchez High battled the top team in the region to the wire before taking a wild 60-55 win in triple overtime over the Rebels in its final division contest. After a wild game like this, you can’t help but go home feeling good about yourself.

&uot;We picked up that momentum going into the tournament,&uot; said point guard Tryon Wilson, who hit a crucial shot in the final overtime that put the game away. &uot;Nobody in our district is a dominant team. We’ve got a good chance of winning.&uot;

Wilson provided a key shot with 1:39 left in the final overtime to finally break up what was a close game for nearly the entire contest. The score was 31-31 after three, 41-41 after regulation, 43-43 after the first overtime and 48-48 after the second overtime.

It even got to 51-51 witih 2:48 left in the third OT before the Bulldogs (7-10, 2-4) finally pulled away thanks to a couple bad breaks for Forest Hill (12-9, 4-1).

C.J. Wright came off the bench to nail two free throws with 2:29 left for a 53-51 lead, and the Rebels came up empty on their trip down the floor. That’s when Wilson drove the lane, put in a bucket and got fouled with 1:39 left.

Wilson missed the free throw, but the lead was at 55-51 &045; the Bulldogs’ biggest lead since early in the fourth quarter.

&uot;I just started driving,&uot; Wilson said. &uot;I just drove it into the hole, and I was looking for the pass to one of my big men.&uot;

The Rebels were called for a travel on their end, and Derrick Blackwell tossed in a bucket for the Bulldogs with 56 seconds left for a 57-51 lead. The Rebels had a shot when Kevin Sims hit a shot with 47 seconds, called timeout and got a jump ball call on the inbounds play with the arrow in their favor with 27 seconds left.

Their inbounds pass went out of bounds, and the Bulldogs drew the foul to put Wilson on the line with 19 seconds left. He canned them both for a 59-53 lead.

The Bulldogs had a chance to win it in the first overtime after Greg Purnell &045; who was solid with 14 points and several key rebounds &045; missed two free throws after being fouled while shooting with no time left. Then in the second overtime the Bulldogs got a bucket from DaMorris Merrick with five seconds left to tie it again.

The Rebels, however, sent it into regulation when Rashaud Carter nailed a running jumper as time expired to tie the score.

Brookhaven Academy 63, ACCS 51

BROOKHAVEN &045; John R. Gray returned to the gym named after him Friday night, only this time as the head coach of the opposition. But the crowd at the John R. Gray Gymnasium still gave him a good reception.

But too many turnovers kept the Rebels (16-4) from giving Gray a win at his former school.

ACCS led No. 7 Brookhaven (25-3) 13-9 at the end of the first quarter and were tied with the Cougars at 26-all at halftime before the Cougars wore them down in the second half.

Franklin County 63, Hazlehurst 48

HAZLEHURST &045; Once again, Zach Thomas was unstoppable as Bulldogs’ post player scored 30 points to lead them to a 15-point win in Region 7-3A action Friday night.

Jefferson County 58, North Pike 41

FAYETTE &045; Jefferson County (12-14, 8-4) jumped out to a 15-6 lead over North Pike (7-14, 1-8) at the end of the first quarter and pulled away from the Jaguars with a 19-8 advantage in the third quarter.

Ferriday 94, Crowville 45

CROWVILLE, La. &045; The Trojans turned a close game into a rout by dominating the second and third quarters en route to a lopsided win over the Bulldogs.

Ferriday (9-10, 2-3) led Crowville (8-16, 0-5) just 20-15 after one quarter of play, but turned the lights out on the Bulldogs by outscoring them 30-5 in the second quarter for a 30-point halftime lead.

Wesson 63, Cathedral 54

NATCHEZ &045; The Green Wave (6-15) quickly saw a two-point lead at the end of the first quarter disappear as the Cobras (9-13) outscored them over the final three quarters to leavewith a nine-point win.

Cathedral led Wesson 16-14 after one quarter of play, but the Cobras outscored the Green Wave 19-13 in the second quarter.