Cathedral boys, girls advance with sweet wins over St. Al
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, February 8, 2011
JACKSON — Every Cathedral win over St. Aloysius is sweet for the Green Wave, but when that win comes in post-season play, it’s the cherry on top.
Cathedral’s girls and boys served up sweet sundaes Monday night.
With three players scoring in double figures and two of them, Ana Perry and Nana Kumi, having double-doubles, Cathedral defeated the St. Aloysius Lady Flashes 47-38 Monday night in the first round of the MHSAA Region 7-1A Tournament at Mississippi School for the Deaf.
Ginny Daggett led Cathedral (9-15) with 12 points. Perry finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds while Kumi had her best overall game of the season with 10 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots. Epiphany Jackson pulled down 12 rebounds to go with her four points.
“Everybody stepped up. We rebounded the ball well. It was all around big plays,” Lady Green Wave head coach Bernita Dunbar said.
The start to the St. Aloysius-Cathedral girls’ game was delayed by close to 20 minutes due to an unrelated traffic accident in I-55. But the fourth-seeded Lady Green Wave were more than ready to get the game under way against the fifth-seeded Lady Flashes.
The first quarter was a close one throughout and ended with Cathedral holding a 10-8 lead. But it was the second quarter that proved to be the difference in the outcome as the Lady Green Wave outscored the Lady Flashes 19-11 for a 29-19 halftime lead.
Dunbar said that playing various kinds of defenses and playing team ball were big factors in Cathedral coming out on top.
“We were working together. We went to a two-guard man and a triangle-shaped defense with the other three. We also used a full-court trap and a half-court trap. Both of the defense worked well in most situations,” Dunbar said. “We were able to trap because we had three guards up front. When we did some subbing, we went to the triangle.”
While Cathedral was unable to add to its lead at the end of the third quarter, it made sure St. Aloysius did not cut into it. Both teams scored eight points in that quarter to keep the Lady Green Wave’s lead at 10 points.
Ann Thomas led St. Aloysius with a game-high 19 points and Sara Howington added 10 points.
Cathedral will take on No. 1 seed Bogue Chitto Thursday at 4 p.m. in a semifinal match-up. With the win over St. Aloysius, the Lady Green Wave also automatically qualified for next week’s Class 1A South State play-in game.
Cathedral boys 59, St. Aloysius 46
JACKSON — Led by D.J. Perry and Luke Whitaker, the Cathedral Green Wave overcame a shaky start to defeat the St. Aloysius Flashes Monday night in the first round of the Region 7-1A Tournament at Mississippi School for the Deaf.
Perry led Cathedral (10-13) with 17 points while Whitaker scored 13 points and Russell Goodman chipped in with 12 points as the fourth-seeded Green Wave had to rally after trailing fifth-seeded St. Aloysius 13-8 at the end of the first quarter.
“We started off horribly. We were just going through the motions. We weren’t playing defense. We weren’t moving the ball on offense. Second quarter, we picked it up on ‘d’ and started rebounding the ball,” Green Wave head coach Peter Arnold said.
Cathedral ended up with a 15-4 advantage over St. Aloysius in the second quarter to take a 23-17 halftime lead. The Green Wave then outscored the Flashes 16-9 in the third quarter for a 39-26 lead.
Most of the scoring by St. Aloysius came from the duo of Sean Johnson and Elliot Bexley. Johnson finished with a game-high 23 points and Bexley added 15 points.
“It wasn’t a very impressive game for us. But it was a lot on the line. We got the job done. And we’ll take it,” Arnold said. “We led by as many as 16 points and held on from there.”
The Green Wave will have its hands full Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the semifinal round when it takes on No. 1 seed West Lincoln – the only varsity boys’ team in the state that is still undefeated.
“They’re the best team we’ve played all year. They have size. They shoot the ball well. We have a couple of days of practice to get ready for them,” Arnold said.
Cathedral’s boys’ team also qualified for a Class 1A South State play-in game that Arnold said will take place next Tuesday.
Block 49, Montgomery 48
MONTGOMERY, La. — Fred Green scored a game-high 16 points and Ken Colbert had 13 points as the Block Bears held on for a one-point win over the Montgomery Tigers in a District 3-1A game Monday night.
Block (11-9, 6-2) led by 10 points at the end of the third quarter, only to see that lead almost slip away as Montgomery mounted a furious fourth-quarter rally. The Tigers outscored the Bears 17-8 in the final quarter, but their attempted comeback ended up just a little bit short.
Preston Bowman added 10 points for Block, which plays at LaSalle today. T. Williams led Montgomery with 13 points while M. County and T. Burton chipped in with 11 points each.
CENLA Christian boys 44, Centreville 34
COLUMBIA — The Centreville Academy Tigers saw their season come to an end Monday night with a 10-point loss to the CENLA Christian Academy Lions in the first round of the MAIS Class AA South State Tournament at Columbia Academy.
CENLA Christian jumped out to a 13-8 lead over Centreville after one quarter, but the Tigers outscored the Lions 12-8 to make it a 20-20 game at halftime. The game was still close after three quarters of play with the Lions having just a one-point lead. But they put the game away in the fourth quarter as they scored 17 points to just eight for the Tigers.