Given how things started out for the Adams Christian Rebels, it’s been a good final two weeks of district play.

They’ve won two of their last four games and are playing some of their best basketball of the season down the stretch. But for the Rebels it’s especially sweet to turn things around after starting the district schedule with six consecutive losses.

&uot;We’re starting to play a little better as a team,&uot; Rebels coach Kyle Smith said. &uot;Even when we lost Friday, we played pretty well and had a lead late in the game.&uot;

Smith said the biggest difference is on offense, where his team has slowed things down and been more efficient.

&uot;We’ve been more patient on offense recently,&uot; Smith said. &uot;Before we were always in a rush, shooting it too fast and forcing ourselves to go back on defense and we would get worn out. Now we spend more time on offense than defense, and that gets us better shots and we can spend more energy on each defensive possession.&uot;

Smith also thinks his team is in better shape than it was to begin the season.

&uot;We weren’t in the greatest shape early on and we got worn down too easy,&uot; Smith said. &uot;I think the guys are in better shape now and it shows on the court.&uot;

The Rebels will have a tough road in the final week of the regular season with three games; at WCCA Tuesday, hosting Parklane Friday and going to Brookhaven Academy Saturday.

None of those should be easy.

&uot;I don’t know who scheduled that, but it won’t be easy,&uot; Smith said.

Then it’s on to the district tournament, where the Rebels will need to win at least one game in order to make it to South State.

&uot;We’re through with our district games, so we’ll find out Wednesday who we open up with in the district tournament,&uot; Smith said. &uot;All year long our goal has been to make it to South State.&uot;

TOUGH LOSS &045; It may not have surprised anyone Friday night when Brittany West tried to get back on the floor after suffering a knee injury on a layup when her Natchez High Lady Bulldogs squared off against Franklin County.

The speedy senior point guard &045; the younger sister of Christen West, sitting out a year at Mississippi Valley &045; went down hard after a layup in the first quarter Friday night and had to be carried off the court. She came back in the second quarter on an inbounds play in front of her team’s bench but came right back out.

A small collision brought the pain hurling back.

&uot;I really hope it’s nothing serious,&uot; Natchez High head coach Sue Johnson said. &uot;But we’re going to have to look at it and see what the doctor says. If she can’t go, we’ll have to go with what we’ve got. She wanted to go (back in) so bad tonight. The trainer told her it was OK. She ran into that screen, and it went out.&uot;

West didn’t come back after that collision, and it put the Lady Bulldogs’ offense in a bit of a quandary. Fortunately they’ve rotated players in and out all season, and Johnson came in with Ke’Airra Jones, Miracle Calcote and Kedria Chatman at the point after West went down.

&uot;It was scary,&uot; post Delequa Drake said. &uot;But we knew we had to believe in ourselves to pull it out not only for Brittany but for (the late) Coach (Mary) Irving. We have it in our minds this season is dedicated to her. If a player goes down, we dedicate that game to that particular player. That was for Brittany.&uot;

The offense hardly missed a beat afterward when the guards kept getting the ball into Drake and Jasmine Woods down low to help take the win over Franklin County. The rest of the guards did what West would have done with aggressive defense and smart decisions passing the ball.

Now they just hope everything turns out fine.

&uot;For her to be so little, she had a gigantic heart,&uot; Johnson said. &uot;The girls wanted to win so bad for her. She is so important out there.&uot;

GET TOGETHER &045; Franklin County’s boys may have found a way for opponents to play Natchez High Friday night &045; slow pace, zone defense and keep the forwards from getting the ball down low.

The visiting Bulldogs never tried to run with the homestanding Bulldogs and game them very few chances to get out and run the floor. Franklin minimized its turnovers and forced Natchez to shoot from the outside.

Deandrea Cameron led Franklin with 10 points.

&uot;We were in foul trouble, and we had to hope they would miss some,&uot; FC head coach Chris Jordan said of his team’s 2-3 zone. &uot;We had to. They work on it a lot in practice, and they’re getting better at it. If (Natchez) makes them, we won’t be able to win. They got plenty of looks, but they just didn’t make them.&uot;

The win was Franklin’s second over Natchez High this season after winning the first game in Meadville. The team has good size and quickness, but what Jordan likes perhaps most of all is its chemistry.

And playing teams like Natchez always helps.

&uot;We’ve lost six games,&uot; he said. &uot;We lost the first two before we got them from football. Lawrence County is tough, and they beat us twice. Port Gibson is pretty strong, and they beat us at their place. This is probably one of the better teams I’ve had.&uot;

STICK WITH THE MAN &045; Johnson’s team stuck with the man-to-man defense Friday night for four quarters &045; a first for her team this season.

But if the Lady Bulldogs learned anything in that solid win over Forest Hill, it’s that their man defense with their quickness can be pretty brutal. The Lady Bulldogs didn’t go as much full-court man as the previous game, but they never opted for the zone.

&uot;We gave them plenty of problems,&uot; guard Wennifer Noble said. &uot;We basically had to play defense to win the game. That’s what our goal is &045; to play great defense. And defensively we get better each game. Coach is trying to get everybody to click at the same time. If we all click, we’ll be unstoppable.&uot;

Franklin County still had scoring opportunities and connected but struggled at times defensively down low and had some turnovers. But the contest of two of the better girls teams in the Miss-Lou lived up to the billing, and Natchez made its case for being one of the best.

Franklin won the first meeting, 58-50.

&uot;If you want to be the big dog, you’ve got to run the other big dogs off the porch,&uot; Johnson said. &uot;They wore down some, and we wore down some, too. I’m trying to keep these girls in tip-top condition. We stayed in the man tonight for a reason &045; to test them and see what we can do.&uot;

ALMA MATER &045; For Trinity coach Melanie Hall, coaching her team in a game at Mississippi College was like going home.

Hall played college ball for the Lady Choctaws and has more than a few fond memories of the place.

&uot;It was a great place to play ball,&uot; Hall said. &uot;It was a great place to go to college. I remember the very first shot I took here was an airball, but things went a lot better after that.&uot;

The Lady Saints played Brookhaven Academy Saturday in a game that was moved up to Clinton as part of a four-game set along Pillow Academy and East Holmes.

&uot;As a mother with daughters who play, it’s just such a great opportunity for them to play here and see what college ball is like and to see where Mom used to play,&uot; Hall said.

Sports editor

Adam Daigle

contributed to this story.