By REED DESALVO
The Natchez Democrat

Brookhaven Academy outscored the Green Wave 8-2 in the extra period Tuesday night to earn a 57-51 win in MAIS 5-AAA boys basketball action.
“We’ve done this a couple of times,” Arnold explained. “Where you’re just not finishing the game the way you’re supposed to.”
Cathedral appeared poised to pull away with a win on two separate occasions, with the latter coming late in the fourth and the Green Wave clinging to a four-point advantage.
“We came down and forced the ball into the corner,” Arnold said. “We’re supposed to keep the ball moving and force them to foul … This is what happens when you don’t play smart.”
The first hiccup came midway through the third period, as Cathedral (13-7, 4-3) saw a 12-point lead vanish by the start of the fourth quarter.
“I was about to lose my mind. It was just ignorance,” Arnold said. “I hate to say that, but it’s true. We had the game pretty much in control at that point, and we made some silly plays and didn’t rotate back on defense.
“They hit some big 3-pointers. We opened the door and they ran through it.”
Connor Mire led the Green Wave with 13 points, while Derrion Batieste had 12, and Jardarius Anderson chipped in with 11 points.
Cathedral will host Bogue Chitto Friday.
Cathedral (girls) 47, Brookhaven 24
Cathedral steadily increased its advantage through each period en route to recording a 47-24 resounding win over Brookhaven Academy.
The Lady Green Wave (15-5, 3-5) led at the end of the first quarter 8-3 before leading at the half 17-11.
“We missed a lot of shots early on,” said Arnold, who also coaches the girls team. “In fact, the first half was downright ugly basketball. I think we kind of set basketball back a few years.”
Cathedral then kicked it into high gear in the third, pushing its advantage to 31-18.
“We came out and started playing the way we normally play,” Arnold said. “We pushed our lead out and played the right way the second half.”
Junior forward Elizabeth Smith led the Green Wave with 15 points, scoring a plethora of her points from the paint.
“We have a lot of chemistry,” Smith said. “When we do what we’re supposed to, then we are pretty good.”
Defensively, the Lady Green Wave utilized a strong defense to hold Brookhaven to single-digit scoring in each of the four periods.
“We played defense really well, and we executed all our plays,” Smith said. “We played as a team (Tuesday).
“This was a district game, so it’s a big win.”