Published 12:02 am Sunday, January 18, 2015

Adams County Christian School’s Brandon Brooks and Tyler Stockstill defend the shot of University Academy of Central Louisiana’s Tyris Price as Price attempts a shot. (Sam Gause / The Natchez Democrat)

Adams County Christian School’s Brandon Brooks and Tyler Stockstill defend the shot of University Academy of Central Louisiana’s Tyris Price as Price attempts a shot. (Sam Gause / The Natchez Democrat)

Adams County Christian School head basketball coach Richy Spears is focused on the court, not the rankings. But it is hard for anyone to casually shrug off what the Rebels are doing this season, sitting at 16-2 overall, 5-0 in district play and are ranked as high as No. 2 in some polls.

“Rankings don’t matter,” Spears said. “We don’t care about that. If we can get to where we work as a team, none of that matters. I don’t even look at it. I call in scores to the paper, but other than that, I don’t look at who scored.”

But for ACCS, nearly everyone is scoring, and players credit their ability to play as a team as one of the many reasons they are so successful this season.

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“We’ve got a good group of seniors leading the way and we are playing consistent right now,” said Brody Cole, a leading scoring option for the Rebels.

This year’s ACCS roster is filled with experience and that is something Spears believes plays in their favor.

“We’ve been doing it for a couple of years and they have gotten used to the system,” he said. “They got tons of experience last year. I’ve got three starters back from last year and the two that stepped in, they played a significant role last year. The first three off the bench played significant minutes last year, too.”

But the Rebels still have their go-to guys, notably Cole and Brandon Brooks, who can put up big scoring numbers every night. However, the two don’t feel too pressured to do so.

“I know we’ve got shooters that can shoot and other people that can make plays,” Brooks said.

Cole agreed.

“Anyone can score,” he said. “It’s not just me or Brandon, the whole team can score.”

As for how long their run of success can continue, the Rebels feel they are legitimate title contenders.

“We can win it all if we keep playing like we are,” Brooks said.

“We can get a state championship, if not overall,” Cole added. “We just have to keep focused.

Even Spears believes his team can be something special.

“I think they could be pretty good, I really do,” he said. “Sometimes we get lazy, but when everybody is playing the way I know they can play and I’ve seen them play, I know we can compete with anybody.”

The Rebels proved that in a thrashing of then No. 1 ranked University Academy Thursday night. ACCS hung 89 points on the Lions and ended up winning the game by 28.

ACCS then turned around and took down district foe Amite School Center, 69-38 Friday night.