NATCHEZ — Both the Adams County Christian School Rebels and the Cathedral Green Wave were looking for their first win of the season when the two teams met Tuesday night at the Roy A. Garcia Memorial Gymnasium.

ACCS hung tough with Cathedral for much of the first quarter, but turnovers and empty possession by the Rebels late in the quarter allowed the Green Wave to go on a big run as they went on to take a 63-40 victory.

Despite the win, Cathedral head coach Peter Arnold said there were a few things he wasn’t too pleased with and something else that, with time, will be even better.

“On defense, we were fouling too much. They made 14 free throws in the first half. Just getting the football players in, we’re nowhere near where we’re going to be offensively,” Arnold said.

Even with the high amount of free throws ACCS made in the first half, the Rebels still found themselves down 19-9 to Cathedral at the end of the first quarter and 37-22 at halftime.

Rebels head coach Rick Fife said he was pleased with how his team played in the early stages of the game, but that his team needs to cut down on turnovers.

“I thought that early in the game we were aggressive and we had some good looks at the basket and we had several free-throw opportunities,” Fife said. “Then about the end of the first quarter and into the second quarter, we had several turnovers and several trips down the court without scoring.”

And as Fife put it, “Cathedral went on a run at that point and never looked back.”

But the Green Wave wasn’t done yet. In the third quarter, they put the clamps down on ACCS and did so without putting the Rebels on the free-throw line. And that was something Arnold was definitely happy to see from his team.

“In the third quarter, we played much better defense. We played good defense without fouling. At one point, we scored 14 in a row to put the game out of reach,” Arnold said. “The defense was better than our offense. It takes time to get all the players up to speed.”

Cathedral outscored ACCS 18-5 in the third quarter for a 55-27 lead. Caleb Upton led the Green Wave with 15 points while D.J. Perry, Jarrell Johnson, Khalil Brice and Trevor Farmer had eight points each.

“It’s going to be like that all year. One player may score 14 or 16 points, but we can have four or five guys score six to eight points. Daniel Huffines is still out. He’s still nursing an injury,” Arnold said.

The Rebels were led by Brandon Walker with a game-high 16 points and Hunter Lindsey with seven points.

“I thought we had some bright spots at times. We rebounded well at times. Our Achilles heel right now is turnovers,” Fife said. “Our kids fought hard the whole game, which is a good sign.”

Cathedral (1-4) goes up against Jena Thursday at 4:45 p.m. at the Monterey Tournament. ACCS (0-5) plays host to Tensas Academy Thursday night.

ACCS girls 62, Cathedral 23

Brandis White scored 22 points and Tory Laird had 17 points to lead four Adams County Christian School players in double figures as the Lady Rebels routed the Cathedral Lady Green Wave Tuesday night.

There would be no attempted second-half comeback attempt for Cathedral in this game. ACCS’s press defense made sure of that. By halftime, the Lady Rebels had a commanding 39-13 lead and at the end of the third quarter they were out in front 55-18.

Jessica Reynolds added 11 points and Abby Givens poured in 10 points for ACCS (10-0). Cathedral (0-4) was led by McKenzie Milligan with 11 points and Wesley Calloway with five points.

ACCS hosts Tensas Academy Thursday night. Cathedral takes on Jena Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in the first round of the Monterey Tournament.