NATCHEZ — Peter Arnold could only smile as the Cathedral basketball team hoisted his son Nicholas on their shoulders after the game Thursday night.

Nicholas hit a three-pointer, the first basket of his career, in the final minutes of a 79-51 win against Enterprise High School. The shot earned him a chance to get carried off the court.

“I’m really happy,” Peter Arnold said. “I was making sure everyone scored, so we were running everything we could to get him a chance. He told me before he went in that he’d score a three.”

Cathedral started the game down 6-2 in the opening minutes, but quickly came back to make it 7-6 with 3:22 left in the first quarter. The Green Wave would never trail after that.

“All these guys are so athletic,” Arnold said. “We had the full-court press going four minutes into the game and finally let up with two minutes left.

“We were pressuring, anticipating passes, stealing and converting steals to points. It was just a good full-court game.”

Collin Hammons led the Green Wave with 22 points, followed by Carl Hammitte with 15 points. The Green Wave led 46-23 at the half.

“We’ve started fast every game we’ve played, and have led all five games at the half,” Arnold said. “Before the football players joined us, though, we lacked the depth we needed and couldn’t finish. Now that they’re here, we have that depth.

“We’re still putting the pieces together, but in a short time we’re going to be a pretty good team.”

Arnold said he has 12 to 13 players he can sub in without there being a big drop off in performance on the court.

“Depth is why we lost the first three games, and now that we have it, there aren’t a lot of teams where you can sub out and continue at the same level of play,” Arnold said.

The Green Wave (2-3) will play in the Monterey Tournament today.

Enterprise 45, Cathedral Girls 26

The Lady Green Wave could not overcome Enterprise’s strong man-to-man defense in its Tuesday night loss.

Assistant coach Randy Smith, who was standing while head coach Bernita Dunbar was out of town, said there wasn’t much the Cathedral girls could do offensively.

“I give credit to them, their man-to-man defense is what did us in,” Smith said.

“We couldn’t execute tonight against it, and we didn’t have much patience on offense. We tried too hard. I think we can play better. I liked the effort, but the shots just didn’t sink.”

Ginny Daggett led Cathedral with eight points. Ana Perry and Sara Beth Willard each scored five points.

Cathedral (2-3) will play in the Monterey Tournament today.