NATCHEZ — The Adams County Christian School boys sought to shut down Cathedral High School’s inside game when the two teams squared up Thursday night.

And early on, it worked. Then the Green Wave found a perimeter game.

The result was a 66-26 blowout win for Cathedral (6-6), which had several players hit multiple three-pointers, something ACCS (1-11) didn’t seem to have an answer for.

“At the beginning of the game, we were struggling, and they were packing the zone in tight, leaving those three-point shots open, and we have some guys that will shoot it,” Cathedral coach Peter Arnold said.

“We prefer to play inside-out, but if they’re packing it in, you have to take what they’re giving you.”

Cathedral managed an early 6-0 lead, with D.J. Perry scoring all six points. Cathedral’s Caleb Upton hit the first three-pointer of the game with 1:27 left in the first, and things just seemed to take off from there for the Green Wave.

After getting a 17-5 lead in the first quarter, the Green Wave defense continued to stifle the Rebels’ offense, and Cathedral took a 37-13 lead into the half.

But it was the third quarter where the Green Wave’s perimeter game began to take over. Upton had another three-point basket with 5:10 left, and Trevor Farmer added one with 3:00 to go in the third. Jamon Gray followed Farmer with a three-pointer of his own at the 1:53 mark.

Perry, meanwhile, was able to make plays inside despite the Rebels’ zone defense. He finished the game with 20 points, and the Green Wave was up 59-21 after three.

Even with the strong offensive showing, Arnold gave most of the credit to his team’s defense.

“Hitting the three gets you going, but really the defense is what gets you going,” Arnold said. “We were able to get some steals, then get some transition baskets, and that really gets everyone’s energy level up.”

Upton and Gray both tallied nine points for Cathedral. ACCS was led by Ryan Strong, who finished with eight points. Hayden Newman added six points for the Rebels.

Despite the loss, ACCS head coach Rick Fife said his team continues to make strides.

“I thought we came out better early,” Fife said. “We’re making improvements every game, being a young team. At times, our youth shows, but I think we are improving pretty much every game in certain areas.”

Fife also said when a team gets hot from beyond the arc, it becomes very hard to slow down that team’s shooting.

“When they spread us out, that’s when they started going to their big men, and we had trouble with that,” Fife said. “You live and die with the zone (defense) sometimes.”

ACCS girls 60,Cathedral 37

Brandis White scored 16 points and had 10 assists for the Lady Rebels as they coasted past Cathedral Thursday night.

Jessica Reynolds added 10 points for the Lady Rebels, who led 32-10 at the break. Cathedral’s Ginny Daggett tallied 11 points.

Cathedral will play in the WCCA tournament Dec. 27. ACCS will begin play in the Simpson Academy tournament on the same day.