The Wilkinson County Lady Wildcats are on a roll.

With wins over Amite County and Jefferson County by an average of 27 points, the Lady Wildcats are getting into the flow of district play the right way. Wilkinson beat Amite 66-38 Tuesday night and defeated Jefferson 73-47 Friday night.

Key to the Wildcats’ strong play of late has been the return of Erica Lewis. Lewis missed the first few weeks of the basketball season after having bone chips removed from her ankle, but has been on fire since her return.

Lewis was the missing piece on an otherwise very strong Wilkinson County squad.

In the Wildcat’s 73-47 win Tuesday over Amite County she was the difference in the game, Wilkinson County head coach Edwin White said.

&uot;Erica Lewis played pretty well, she’s provided a spark for the team since she got back,&uot; White said. &uot;She did a very good job.&uot;

Since coming back, Lewis has blended in almost seamlessly and her team has hit its stride just in time for district. Lewis doesn’t usually score a lot of points, but her passing on offense and strong defense has contributed strongly to the team’s play. Even more importantly, her arrival has given the team some depth, something it was sorely lacking earlier this season.

&uot;It’s fun, it’s great. We’re more organized since I got back,&uot; Lewis said. &uot;Everybody’s on the right pafe right now and things are going well.&uot;

Lewis said she feels good and hasn’t had any pain from her ankle since coming back. And that’s a good sign for the Wildcats.

WELL-TAILORED OFFENSE &045; Bogue Chitto head coach Todd Wilson admitted he could boast of players over 6-0 &045; only if you’d put them in cowboy boots and have them stand on their tiptoes.

So he put an offense in motion.

The Bobcats ran it well Friday night against Cathedral, and it’s a variation of the Princeton offense &045; lots of cutting, anyone handling the ball at a given time and the objective is to get as many wide-open layups as possible.

It worked for a while, but the Green Wave made the adjustments and didn’t get out of its man-to-man defense to get the 45-40 win Friday night in overtime.

&uot;When we’re patient, we’ve always got something good,&uot; said Wilson, who arrived at Bogue Chitto after spending time as an assistant at USM. &uot;When we tend to rush things, we always make mistakes. That’s our key offensively. We did a good job of staying high and wide &045; it’s what we like to do. It’s hard to guard out there &045; it doesn’t matter who you are or what defense you play.

&uot;We’re small. We just have to play with what we’ve got.&uot;

Cathedral head coach Peter Arnold lauded his club’s effort as its best defensive showing of the year. Bogue Chitto had success early in the game when Cathedral tried to stay with a tight man and got beat to the goal.

Other times the Green Wave sagged too much and the Bobcats hit the 3-pointer.

&uot;Right away I realized what they were doing,&uot; Arnold said. &uot;We had gone over that in practice. We were getting too caught up in trying to guard them on the perimeter instead of the back cuts. We made the adjustments. Andrew Ellard came in and played excellent defense. That’s his strength, and he came through in a big way.&uot;

Said Clay Pennington: &uot;We just had to play with them. You can’t sit back on them. All they were trying to do was get it inside.&uot;

The Bobcats struggled with the offense late in the game and had to rely on their defense to stay in it as the game was knotted at 35 at the end of regulation. Yet it was another step for the rebuilding Bobcats, who lost eight seniors off last year’s division champion squad, including smooth-shooting forward Irrie Catchings.

&uot;That’s what they’re battling &045; just a little inexperience,&uot; Wilson said. &uot;We’ve been in every game. We’ve led at one point in the second or third quarter of every game we’ve played.&uot;

NO HOLIDAY BLUES &045; The Tensas Lady Chiefs didn’t get a chance to go into the holiday break on a solid note, but blame some of that on scheduling.

Scheduling they believe will pay off in the long run.

The Class A Lady Chiefs fell at Class AAA Central Private Friday, 56-42, to fall to 7-6 on the season. But the losses have all been to tough opponents &045; CP, Brookhaven Academy, Parklane and three to Class A Claiborne.

To top it off, talented junior Tabitha Howard was unavailable to play Friday and had been battling an illness up until then.

&uot;We got it to three (Friday) but couldn’t pull it off,&uot; Tensas head coach Chuck Bauerle said. &uot;They scored 37 points in the first half, and we just stunk it up on the defensive end. We’ll get it together. Tabitha has been sick, and we just haven’t put it all together yet. The second half we played them really well. They’ve got a good team, too.

&uot;We’ll get there. I had this tough schedule to begin with. Hopefully it’ll pay off for us down the line. You always want your record to be better, but we’re looking down the road.&uot;

BETTER DAYS &045; Cathedral’s Lady Wave have yet to find a niche this season, but at least first-year head coach Kathy Graning can count the steps of improvement.

For one, this year’s bunch &045; one that is void of a senior &045; has yet to have 30 turnovers in a game, the team’s average last year. Then the 38-22 loss to Bogue Chitto wasn’t near as bad as the scores from last year.

&uot;This is a team that has traditionally beat us bad the last few years,&uot; Graning said. &uot;I told the girls you can’t be satisfied with playing people. We’ve got to get to where we have a chance to beat them. I’m real pleased with how hard we play. We’ve played hard every night. It’s just little things &045; bad passes and bad decisions &045; that when we get (corrected) they’ll turn around and we’ll start win some ball games.&uot;

MR. CLUTCH &045; If it’s all about learning from past experiences, Matthew Hall could be Cathedral’s star student. The junior forward missed a big free throw late in last week’s loss to St. Al, but on Friday he came up big.

With the Wave holding a three-point lead with 34 seconds left in overtime, he hit the second of two free throws to make it a two-possession game for Bogue Chitto. It helped after Joseph Hart hit a 3-pointer later, and Hall’s teammates followed suit at the line to close it out.

&uot;The more times you’re in that situation and able to have success in it, that can always help you,&uot; Arnold said. &uot;I told Matthew I had all the confidence in the world I him. I would have him to go out there and make it. I knew he would make it, and he did. Any pressure situation you’re in, you grow from it. Matthew is certainly a key player for us, he came through when we needed him and I’m very proud of him.&uot;

Sports editor

Adam Daigle

contributed to this report.