NATCHEZ — The Robert Lewis Middle School eighth-grade boys’ basketball team came full circle on the court this season.

The team started its season with a 30-point loss at home to Newellton, La., and followed that with a 36-28 defeat at the hands of Wilkinson County.

But the Bulldogs continued to improve and culminated their 2011 season by avenging their loss to Wilkinson County by the score of 46-19 in the championship game of the Southwest Mississippi Conference tournament.

“Once the kids bought into our system of hard work, being fundamentally sound on defense and running our offense we started to do things to make us champs,” RLMS head coach Cleveland Watts said. “Once they bought in we started winning as a team. From day one to the end of the season we saw 100-percent improvement.”

The Bulldogs finished the season with a record of 12-5 overall and many of those losses came at the hands of some tough opponents, Watts said.

“Over the year we played up (in competition) against teams as good or better than we were, and it made us perform at a higher level,” Watts said.

The championship was the Bulldogs fourth-straight conference title and fifth out of the last six years, Watts said.

Watts said a staple of the 2011 team was tough defense, and that showed in the Bulldogs’ final two games in which they only allowed 50 total points — the semi-final game against Amite County and the championship game against Wilkinson County.

“Overall this team was more talented than last year’s,” Watts said. “Last year’s team was more physical. This year was more fundamental, worked hard and played good defense. They played together offensively. Last year’s team, by the time it got to the fourth quarter, they would wear you down.”

Watts said winning the championship this season was special for him because he saw in the players’ eyes the fulfillment they felt from fighting from their early-season adversity.

“They were able to see the success and how much they improved from day one,” he said.

Watts said much of the team’s success should be credited to assistant coach Roderick Holmes, who works with the seventh-grade team.

Watts said Holmes did a good job this year with the seventh-grade team, which finished 4-2 on its season, and he expects that team to compete for another title next year as eighth graders.

“We should be OK next year,” Watts said. “They just have to get in the gym like this year’s team.”

As for this year’s champions, Watts said many of the boys have a great chance to succeed next year at the high school level.

“They have a ninth-grade team (at Natchez High), so most of them will play ninth-grade ball,” Watts said. “It’s pretty hard to predict what the coaches on the next level will do, but if they buy into the program and stay eligible by getting the grades they need most of them have a bright future.”