NATCHEZ &8212; If a first game is any indication of how the season will unfold, Amite School Center may be in for a pretty good ride.

With good size underneath and at the guard spots and four returning starters from last season&8217;s district champ, at least things were shaping up to maybe be quite better than last year. Even after Tuesday&8217;s 49-38 win over Huntington at the ACCS Tip-Off Classic, many of those positives came to light.

Just keep in mind, however, this was the season opener. There&8217;s still plenty more basketball to be played before those really important games in mid-February.

&8220;I&8217;ve got a group that wants to win and they enjoy the game,&8221; Amite head coach Billy Jones said. &8220;To me, that&8217;s the main part. If they want to win, the rest of it is my job. We were lucky enough to win district and felt like with the numbers we have coming back we&8217;d be OK in our district. How much we do beyond that depends on how well we grow up and learn as a team.

&8220;We went to South State and ran into a buzzsaw there. It&8217;s hard when it had been six or seven years since we had an opportunity to play for South State. It was a whole new experience for our girls.&8221;

It was a tough experience for the Lady Hounds, who struggled in the post area against Amite&8217;s Brittany Carroll and scoring on the other end. Huntington used its defense to stay in the game and trail by on with just under five minutes left in the game, but the Lady Rebels pulled away from there.

The Lady Hounds were forced to get most of their points from the outside. Jessie Lee and Leslie Wagoner put up 13 apiece.

&8220;Our post play didn&8217;t show up,&8221; Huntington head coach Penny Moak said. &8220;We tried everything. We&8217;re not a real quick team. It&8217;s going to be hard for us to press this year because we don&8217;t have the quickness. If we&8217;re going to get into a half-court game, are guards are there. Our post players will have to get in there and play.&8221;

Carroll is one of two seniors on the Amite roster, and she played a key role at times when the Lady Rebels pulled away. Huntington tried man-to-man defense early before abandoning it for the 2-3 zone, but the Lady Rebels found a way to get inside or just put it in the basket.

Carroll tossed on in at the 4:15 mark in the fourth quarter that gave Amite a 39-36 lead and ignite a 12-2 run to end the game. Huntington missed two free throws with 1:12 left, and Carroll scored on the other end for a 45-38 lead.

Carroll and Annsley Dykes led Amite with 16 points apiece.

&8220;Tonight we had a height advantage,&8221; Jones said. &8220;They were a little quicker than we were. (Huntington) mixed it up, and we had to make adjustments to keep ourselves in the ball game. Every time we thought we&8217;d break it open, (Moak) would throw something new and catch us off guard. I thought the girls did a good job of playing within themselves.&8221;

The Lady Hounds trimmed the lead on three occasions but never could get over the hump. Dykes knocked down a 3-pointer with 1:56 left in the third that gave Amite a 29-24 lead, but Huntington later added a 3-pointer from Wagoner that cut it to 31-29.

When Brittany Ann Harden tossed in a bucket early in the fourth that gave Amite a 37-32 lead, Huntington answered with a bucket from Lee on a fast break at the 4:56 mark that cut it to 37-36.

&8220;We didn&8217;t have a single point in the paint, maybe,&8221; Moak said. &8220;If we&8217;ve got two post players starting and not any of them scoring, that makes it tough. Our guards did a pretty good job, but we&8217;ve got to get some balance. (Tarver) is a sophomore, and the potential is there. I think it&8217;s going to take her a while to iron things out. They&8217;ll get better.&8221;

The Lady Hounds played their best defense in the second quarter after they fell behind 16-9 and went on a 10-0 run. They broke up passes to the post in their zone defense, and Katie Moak buried a 3-pointer from the left side at the 1:14 mark that gave her club a 19-16 lead.

Amite, however, came with two free throws from Jessica Jackson and a bucket from Carroll off a rebound to lead 20-19 at half.

&8220;I didn&8217;t think we did that bad of a job (defensively),&8221; Penny Moak said. &8220;We did a horrible job of rebounding and blocking out.&8221;