Lady Rebels get key victory

Published 1:18 am Wednesday, January 20, 2010

WOODVILLE — With back-to-back losses to Silliman and Centreville last week, Tuesday night’s MAIS District 5-AA game between Adams County Christian School and Wilkinson County Christian Academy turned out to be an important game for both the Lady Rebels and the Lady Rams.

ACCS could not afford a third straight loss in district play to drop from at one time being tied for first place with Silliman all the way down to fourth place. But a win by WCCA would put the Lady Rams in third place in the district standings.

Unfortunately for the Lady Rams, they could not recover from a sluggish first quarter and they picked the wrong game to have a bad night at the free-throw line as they lost to the Lady Rebels 48-42.

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“We had a slow first quarter. We missed a couple of key shots early. We had some pressure on them. We seemed to sit back and let them dictate the tempo in the first quarter,” Lady Rams head coach Ray Olive said.

Even though Olive said he felt like the pressure was on ACCS in this game, the Lady Rams could not take advantage of the situation. They fell behind 11-4 at the end of the first quarter and then trailed 20-12 at halftime.

WCCA, which went into the game shooting 74 percent from the free throw line for the season, made just nine of its 22 free throws.

ACCS (17-8, 4-3) managed to maintain an eight-point lead heading into the fourth quarter and held off the Lady Rams in the fourth quarter.

“To God be the Glory. This was a big win, a good win for us,” Lady Rebels head coach Melanie Hall said. “We had (WCCA) down several times and they fought back. My girls did what they had to do to get the win. We were coming off two district games last week in less than 24 hours. Tonight’s game was huge.”

While ACCS kept a firm hold on third place, WCCA fell to 2-4 in district play.

“We were looking at it,” Olive said. “I told them it was a very important game moving up in the standings and for seeding in the district tournament. I talked to the girls after the game.”

Taylor Welch led the Lady Rebels with a game-high 16 points and Rachel Holloway had 13 points. Terri Fisher led the Lady Rams with 14 points and Mary Claire Netterville scored 12 points.

“We’re just going to have to play four complete quarters of basketball. There was no way we were gong to lose tonight,” Hall said.

Cathedral 52, Sebastopol 48

SEBASTOPOL — With Cathedral’s post players being held in check, junior guard Ana Perry and sophomore guard Ginny Daggett picked up their game as the outside duo combined for 41 points in the Lady Green Wave’s win over the Sebastopol Lady Bobcats Tuesday night.

This important Region 7-1A game for Cathedral was a close one from the start. Neither team was able to go on a big run to put the other team away. The first quarter ended in a 12-12 tie and the Lady Green Wave took a one-point lead over the Lady Bobcats at halftime.

With Perry and Daggett leading the way, Cathedral outscored Sebastopol 16-14 in the third quarter for a 41-38 lead and finished off the game with an 11-10 advantage in the fourth quarter. Perry led all scorers with 21 points and Daggett finished with 20 points as the Lady Green Wave improved to 8-9 overall and 3-2 in region play.

Lexus Kennedy led Sebastopol with 20 points and Ashley McLemore added 11 points.

Trinity Episcopal 65, Tensas Academy 39

NATCHEZ — For the second time in as many days, the Trinity Episcopal Lady Saints jumped out to a big lead and ended up with an easy win as they defeated the Tensas Academy Lady Chiefs by 26 points in MAIS District 6-A action Tuesday night.

Trinity Episcopal had its way with Tensas Academy not only in the first quarter, but in the second quarter as well. The Lady Saints had a double-digit lead during the first quarter and led 22-7 at the end of that quarter. By halftime, they had a commanding 37-16 lead over the Lady Chiefs.

Even though Tensas Academy played better in the second half, the 21-point deficit was way too much to overcome. Lauchlyn Emfinger had 11 points and Emma Arceneaux added 10 points to lead the Lady Chiefs.

Trinity Episcopal (17-6, 5-1) had four players finish in double figures. Bethany Ogden led all scorers with 20 points, followed by Madelyn Cross with 14 points and Brandis White and Rosie Woods with 11 points apiece.

Bolton 37, Vidalia 24

VIDALIA — The Vidalia Lady Vikings were just eight minutes from picking up their first win of the season after going into the fourth quarter with a one-point lead.

That’s when Bolton decided it wasn’t going to happen at the expense of the Lady Bears as they shut out Vidalia in the final quarter en route to a 13-point win over the Lady Vikings in a District 3-3A game Tuesday night.

Bolton went into halftime with a 17-15 lead, but Vidalia outscored Bolton 9-6 in the third quarter. But any thoughts of the Lady Vikings finally getting that elusive first win came to an end not long after the fourth quarter started. The Lady Bears put up 14 points in the final eight minutes while holding the Lady Vikings without a single point.

Deshea Matlock finished with 11 points and Shannterica Wadsworth chipped in with 10 points to lead Bolton. Gabby Wagoner led Vidalia (0-18, 0-6) with a game-high 14 points.

Ferriday 60, Mangham 27

MANGHAM, La. — The Ferriday Lady Trojans got some unexpected offense from Deonka Birdon and Keisho Hawkins as they rolled to a 33-point win over the Mangham Lady Dragons Tuesday night in District 2-2A action.

Mangham had trouble getting through Ferriday’s press defense and could not slow down the Lady Trojans on their end of the court in this game. By the time the first quarter was over, Ferriday enjoyed a 24-7 lead and never looked back from there.

Birdon led the Lady Trojans with 16 points while Hawkins scored eight points to go with Chante Poole’s nine points. T’Keyah Fletcher also had eight points for Ferriday (13-8, 2-1). Mangham (1-19, 0-2) was led by KeKe Holmes with 16 points.

Franklin County 66, Wilkinson County 39

WOODVILLE — Wilkinson County hung tough with Franklin County through one quarter of play, but a big second quarter by the third-ranked team in Class 3A helped turned this game into a rout as the Lady Bulldogs defeated the Lady Wildcats by 27 points Tuesday night to remain undefeated in Region 7-3A.

Franklin County led Wilkinson County by just three points, 13-10, at the end of the opening quarter. That would be as close as the Lady Wildcats would get the rest of the game. The Lady Bulldogs outscored the Lady Wildcats 17-9 in the second quarter for a 30-19 halftime lead.

The second half would be more of the same as Franklin County continued to force Wilkinson County to either turn the ball over or take contested shots. The Lady Bulldogs scored 36 points after halftime while the Lady Wildcats were held to 20 points.

Vintrice Briggs led Franklin County (12-2, 4-0) with 18 points and Kierra Collins had 15 points. Wilkinson County was led by B. Day with 12 points.

Block 40, Montgomery 13

MONTGOMERY, La. — The Block Lady Bears may have lost some good players from last season’s Class 1A state championship team, but they may still be the team to beat in District 3-1A as their win over Montgomery Tuesday night kept them undefeated in district play.

Block (8-12, 3-0) jumped out to a 10-2 lead after one quarter of play and continued to extend its lead throughout the game. Once halftime rolled around, the Lady Bears had a commanding 22-7 lead and once the third quarter came to an end, they led 32-10.

Tyra Jefferson led the Lady Bears with a game-high 17 points and Desiree Savage chipped in with 10 points.