Trinity girls, boys win district tourney

Published 12:58 am Sunday, February 7, 2010

PORT GIBSON — The Trinity Episcopal Lady Saints did something in the fourth quarter of Saturday night’s girls championship game of the MAIS District 6-A Tournament at Chamberlain-Hunt Academy that completely surprised everyone and frustrated the Tallulah Academy Lady Trojans — they went to a stall offense.

During one stretch, Trinity Episcopal held the ball for nearly three minutes before taking a shot. That strategy worked as the second-seeded Lady Saints outscored Tallulah Academy en route to defeating the fifth-ranked and top-seeded Lady Trojans 33-23 to win the district championship.

The Lady Saints led the Lady Trojans 27-21 at the end of the third quarter when head coach Richy Spears decided to go with a kind of offense that no Lady Saints team has used in a long time. With the move to go to a stall offense, Tallulah Academy was limited to possibly having to foul someone or force turnovers. With the outcome still in doubt, one would have thought the Lady Trojans would try to do something to get back in the game.

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Bethany Ogden led Trinity Episcopal (21-8) with 16 points and Madelyn Cross scored 11 points. Tallulah Academy was led by Katie Book with 10 points. The Lady Saints will the No. 1 seed and the Lady Trojans the No. 2 seed out of District 6-A for the MAIS Class A South State Tournament at Claiborne Academy in Haynesville, La., which starts next Tuesday.

Trinity Episcopal boys 90, Brairfield 50

PORT GIBSON — A day after struggling through a good part of a win over Tensas Academy, the Trinity Episcopal Saints had no such problems against Briarfield in the MAIS District 6-A boys championship game.

The Saints led just 20-14 after one quarter, but outscored Brairfield 33-15 in the second quarter to turn the game into a runaway.

Givonni Dent had 20 of Trinity’s 33 points in that quarter, and finished with a game-high 31 points.

The Saints kept the pressure on in the third quarter, outscoring the Rebels 27-15. The teams agreed to a running clock for some of the fourth quarter to prevent the score from getting too out of hand.

In addition to Dent’s 31 points, the Saints were led by Kent King with 18 points and L.J. Trimble and R.J Fleming, who both scored 10.

Brairfield was led by Jacob Hopkins with 17 points and Ridge Creech with 16.

With the district championship, the Saints get a bye in the first round of the MAIS Class A South State Tournament, and won’t play until Friday.

Tallulah Academy boys 61, Tensas Academy 46

PORT GIBSON — Just days after the passing of his father, Tallulah Academy’s Jes Shivers played what Tensas Academy head coach Allen Crigler said was a good game under difficult circumstances.

Shivers led the Trojans with 20 points as they rallied from an early deficit to defeat the Chiefs by 15 points in the boys’ third-place game of the MAIS District 6-A Tournament Saturday night at Chamberlain-Hunt Academy.

With the win, Tallulah Academy will be the district’s No. 3 seed at the Class A South State Tournament. The Trojans fell behind Tensas Academy 15-12 after one quarter of play, but they outscored the Chiefs 21-13 in the second quarter for a 33-28 halftime lead.

Tallulah Academy’s lead would stay at five points at the end of the third quarter, but it pulled away by outscoring Tensas Academy 16-6 in the fourth quarter. The Trojans also got 13 points from Jake Busby and 11 points from Tandon Baker.

Tensas Academy (9-13) was led by Austin Emfinger with a game-high 24 points and Jon Truman James with 14 points.

The Tensas Academy Lady Chiefs defeated the Briarfield Academy Lady Rebels Saturday afternoon in the girls’ third-place game to advance to South State. No other information on the game was available.