NATCHEZ &045; When the lead got down to eight in the second half, you might have wondered if you had been here before.

Maybe not this time.

The Natchez High Bulldogs had things slip away from them a bit in the second half Friday night against Callaway, but they clamped down real quick. The Bulldogs got a big bucket, kept the momentum and rolled to a 62-43 win over the Chargers to head into tonight’s game against Wilkinson County feeling better about themselves.

That’s because against WC the Bulldogs had it and just let things slip away at the end.

&uot;This will give us momentum going into district,&uot; Natchez guard Tryon Wilson said. &uot;It’ll give us some confidence. We played good (inside). We rebounded well in the first half and got a couple of offensive putbacks.

&uot;We’re going to do what we need to do (tonight). We felt like we should have won the first time.&uot;

The Chargers cut it to eight with 31 seconds left in the third quarter when James Burkes put in a basket for a 40-32 edge. But the Bulldogs got a nice score after that when Rodney Gray scored on a putback off a Charles Cothern with 10 seconds left to put the lead at 10 heading into the fourth quarter.

Columbia 74, Centreville 58

McCOMB &045; Four players scored in double figures for the Columbia Academy Cougars, who broke away from a narrow three-point halftime lead over the Centreville Tigers to take a win at the Parklane.

Brandon Patin led Centreville (1-3) with 21 points while Curtis Anders added 11 points.

River Oaks 52, Tensas 42

MONROE, La. &045; Tyler Whitefinished with a game-high 15 points for the Chiefs (0-3), who could not overcome their own mistakes to pull off the win, allowing the Mustangs to advance to the boys’ semifinals against Prairie View, who advanced only because Glenbrook withdrew from the tournament.

River Oaks also won despite having no players score in double figures as Ginn and Herman led the Mustangs with nine points each.

Trinity 57, Huntington 40

NATCHEZ &045; Even though the Saints were held to just eight points in both the first and third quarters, the Saints could not be stopped in the second and fourth quarters.

Steven Ridley led the Saints (4-2) with a game-high 21 points and Gervoni Ware had 10 points. Mike Ferguson led the Hounds (3-5) with 18 points. With the Saints’ scoring woes in the first and third quarters, the Hounds had a chance trailing just 36-30 after three quarters.

Harrisonburg 56, Cathedral 34

MONTEREY, La. &045; The Green Wave was very competitive for just over a half and actually to a 27-26 lead early in the third quarter before the Bulldogs went on a n18-0 run to end the quarter and essentially put the game away.

Clay Pennington led Cathedral with 10 points.

Monterey 49, Central 38

MONTEREY, La. &045; Despite getting 20 points from Kendall Book, the Panthers did not have enough players in the scoring column and could not overcome a tough first quarter.

Even though Monterey had only one player score in double figures, Cody Wulfkuhle with 14 points, the Wolves got scoring contributions from 11 players to just five for Central.

&045;

Patrick Jones