NATCHEZ — After ACCS boys and girls outhustled Central Hinds to produce two large-margin wins, ACCS head coach Richy Spears marched to the locker room shaking his head, upset with his team’s performance.

Despite his boys’ 63-26 win against Central Hinds, Spears was preparing to give his team a chewing after the game.

“I ain’t happy,” Spears said. “We’re just careless with the basketball. Defensively, offensively, we did things that we shouldn’t be doing right now.”

This comes after his team dominated the boards, corralled loose balls to produce fast-break scoring opportunities and produced a 44-18 lead at one point in the game. ACCS rushed out to an 8-0 lead early, but those careless mistakes Spears referred to — ill-advised passes — allowed Central Hinds to pull within six in the first quarter. But that’s when the Rebels’ hustle plays took over. After jarring the ball loose, Trey Fleming ran and grabbed it, accelerating down the floor.

“Go!” Spears hollered to Fleming as he converted a layup and kickstarted another ACCS run.

The team never looked back.

Though Spears was unhappy with his team’s performance, he gave credit to his team’s ability to hustle down the floor.

“We’re always going to hustle, no matter how bad we play,” Spears said. “I’ll give that to them. They played hard. But we have to play hard and play smarter.”

Brandon Brooks, who generated loud ovations with multiple blocks, led the Rebels with 12 points. Tyler Stockstill scored nine, and Lester Wells and Trey Fleming each produced eight points in the win.

With the win, the Rebels improve to 18-2 and 7-0 in district.

Earlier in the evening, the ACCS Lady Rebels benefitted from an overall great defensive performance and stellar shooting night from Anna McDaniel.

McDaniel scored the team’s first 10 points three minutes into the game, while the Lady Rebels forced multiple turnovers as Central Hinds tried to inbound the ball.

“Our defense tonight has been better than it has been for a while,” ACCS head coach Melanie Hall said.

The Lady Rebels led 22-7 after the first quarter and took a 34-10 at the half. McDaniel’s hot shooting night gave ACCS an edge offensively, as she sunk five 3-pointers in the game. McDaniel scored 21 points in the Lady Rebels win.

“This was by far the best performance of her career,” Hall said.

But like Spears, Hall wasn’t full of compliments only. Looking forward, Hall would like to see her team rotating in place better to fine tune her offensive and defensive sets.

“We still have to continue working on the little fundamental things,” Hall said. “We need to work on staying down and not sliding up.”

Bailey Boyd scored 10 for the Lady Rebels in the win.

ACCS improved to 21-4 on the season and 7-0 in district play.