Natchez High School turned the ball over three times in the final minute, and Raymond High School stormed back to steal a 51-47 win in girls basketball Tuesday afternoon.

Natchez controlled the game throughout but without senior Kirdis Clark who fouled out in the final minutes, the Lady Bulldogs were unable to close out the game.

“We played great the whole way, unfortunately we have players that typically take care of the ball, and we didn’t have them there at the end,” Natchez coach Tim Richardson.

Natchez has now lost two consecutive games and three of its last four.

The Lady Bulldogs connected on seven 3-point makes to Raymond’s one.

Natchez led at halftime 24-14.

The Lady Bulldogs led 43-36 with 3:45 remaining in the fourth in addition to entering the final period leading by 10.

Natchez (4-7) led by double digits on multiple occasions and managed to limit Raymond to just 25 points through the first three quarters.

However, thanks to the miscues, the Lady Rangers (8-4) were able to outscore the Lady Bulldogs in the final period, 27-12.

“We couldn’t get the ball in the right people’s hands,” Richardson said. “We had key people foul out. Unfortunately, we came out on the losing end of this one.”

Clark led Natchez with 21 points, despite being the focal point of the Raymond defense. The Lady Rangers consistently face-guarded the scoring guard in addition to playing a box-and-1 defense.

“Every time we have a good game, Kirdis has a good game,” Richardson said. “Teams are going to try and face-guard her or play a box-and-1 and try to take her out of the game. We’ve got to do a better job of setting screens and getting other people open, as well as Kirdis has to do a better job of trusting her teammates and getting them the ball.”

Jadacia Flemings scored 10 points for the Lady Bulldogs.

Raymond was led in scoring by Allison Martin and Breannah McCullah, who scored 21 and 15 points, respectively.

Natchez won’t be back in action until Monday, Dec. 26 when it plays in the highly competitive JPS Tournament in Jackson.

Raymond (boys) 66, 

Natchez 34

Natchez managed to hang with Raymond for a quarter, then the Rangers dominated action the rest of the way.

Raymond outscored Natchez 53-24 in the final three periods as they rolled past the Bulldogs 66-34 in boys action.

“We had a bunch of unforced turnovers,” NHS coach David Haywood said. “We made a couple of bad reads that led to a couple of bad decisions. With a team like Raymond, that look to capitalize on mistakes in transition, we gave them too many opportunities to do that. We played into their hands.”

Natchez started off strong in the first quarter, beating Raymond’s trapping defense for easy baskets. In the second quarter, however, things began to unravel.

The Bulldogs scored just six points in the second period to the Rangers’ 15.

Raymond led at halftime 28-16.

Larry Griffin led Natchez with 11 points and eight rebounds. However, several of the senior big man’s points came in the second half when Raymond had already pulled away.

“Larry is a big part of what we want to do this year,” Haywood said. “And when he starts off with a slow start, it affects the team because they look to him for leadership.”

Taylor Chasley had five points, and Charles Credit and Elijah Hill had four apiece.

Shardarrion Allen led Raymond with 26 points, while Cameron Woodall had 13.

Natchez will have a quick turnaround as it plays today against Picayune High School in the South Pike Tournament.

“We just have to bounce back,” Haywood said. “Picayune is a very good team. We don’t have long to lick our wounds.”