NATCHEZ — A long night for the Cathedral High School Green Wave began the minute they stepped on the court against Lafayette Christian Academy Monday.

The Green Wave suffered a crushing 96-19 defeat at home, with Jardarius Anderson and William Doss leading the pack with five points each.

The Knights had three players in double figures, while several other players got a chance to score some points, as well.

Cathedral head coach Peter Arnold said they played against a great team whose skill level was higher than theirs.

“We’ve played great teams in all four games this season, but they were just in a different league,” Arnold said. “Their skill play was hard to describe, they were just better than us.”

Cathedral only had the lead once at 2-0, but could only generate four more points in the first half thanks to the Knights’ full-court pressure.

The Green Wave had a hard time getting the ball across half court, and LCA took advantage of every opportunity.

After four consecutive turnovers, the Knights had a 13-4 lead, which quickly turned into an 18-point game by the 2:45 mark of the first quarter on Greg Williams’ three-pointer.

Arnold said the Green Wave’s excessive turnovers just added a dent in their performance.

“Everything we could have did wrong, we did wrong,” he said. “It was humbling and disappointing.”

Cathedral didn’t get on the scoreboard after the opening minutes until D.J. Batteste hit a pair of free throws to give the Green Wave six points to the Knights’ 30.

The second quarter didn’t look any better for Cathedral as the Knights came out with a fierce alley-oop dunk on a connection from Jacob Broussard to Williams.

Cathedral’s only points of the second quarter came from Jardarius Anderson on a pull up three-pointer.

But by the end of the first half, Cathedral dug itself in a 49-9 hole that it couldn’t get out of.

Cathedral was only able to score five points in each of the final two quarters, while the Knights put up 31 points in the third quarter, and 16 points in the final quarter.

Arnold said he thinks this loss will hinder his team’s progress at this leg of the season.

“We were making progress, but the last thing we needed was to play a team of that caliber,” he said.

Cathedral will play again Dec. 6., when they host Enterprise High School.

Cathedral girls 45, Lafayette Christian girls 36

NATCHEZ — Cathedral High School girls kept their poise against a resilient Lafayette Christian team that refused to wave the white flag.

The Lady Wave saw a 13-point lead get cut down to as little as five points before getting the victory, 45-34.

Elizabeth Smith led Cathedral in scoring with 18 points and Chandler Miller of LCA put up 11 points.

Cathedral jumped right at the Lady Knights early with a full-court man-to-man press that gave them a 17-4 lead by the end of the first quarter.

But the Lady Knights started to add some pressure as well in the second quarter, which resulted in a 10-second backcourt violation on Cathedral’s opening possession.

LCA outscored the Lady Green 15 to 12 by halftime to strectch their lead to 10. But they came out of the locker room swinging in the third quarter to inch even closer to the Lady Wave.

Their momentum built when Chandler Miller hit a big three-pointer to bring them within seven points, 29-22, at the 6:30 mark.

Part of LCA’s comeback, Cathedral head coach Randy Smith said, came from Cathedral’s lack of defensive pressure.

“We started fouling, and when they got on the free-throw line, they were hitting their shots, so we kept them in the ball game,” he said.

The Lady Wave was able to distance themselves from the Lady Knights in the fourth quarter when they figured out how to break LCA’s full-court press, led by Smith’s eight points in the final quarter.

“We were able to rebound better and try to beat their press,” Smith said. “Once we learned how to beat it, we got a few layups off of it.”

Cathedral girls will play again Dec. 6. when they host Enterprise High School.