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FLOWOOD — Having to go up against the Jackson Preparatory School Lady Patriots at full strength is hard enough. The Cathedral High School Lady Green Wave found out that doing so short-handed is that much tougher.

Led by senior guards Andie Flatgard and Josie Duncan, the Jackson Prep Lady Patriots jumped out to a big first-quarter lead and cruised to a 56-34 win over the Cathedral Lady Green Wave last Saturday night.

Cathedral was without its starting point guard and one of its starting centers. Head coach Bernita Dunbar had to move power forward Lauren Dunbar to point guard and had to go her bench to fill in the center position. With players playing out of positions, the Lady Green Wave could not stay with the MAIS Class 6A powerhouse Lady Patriots.

Jackson Prep had its way with Class 5A Cathedral on both ends of the court in the first quarter. By the time that quarter was finally over, the Lady Patriots had a 26-5 lead and never looked back.

“They have a couple of good girls who can shoot the ball. That’s what they did,” Dunbar said “They did their shooting from 3-point range. We were not able to get out there quick enough. That’s something we have to adjust to, getting out to their 3-point shooters.”

The second and third quarters were much more competitive, but Jackson Prep still outscored Cathedral 14-8 and 14-9, respectively to extend its lead to 54-22. Flatgard led the Lady Patriots with 20 points, including a pair of 3s, to go with three rebounds, three assists and three steals. Duncan made four 3-pointers to finish with 12 points. She also had five rebounds, three assists and three steals.

“We played good ball. The girls played pretty well. But we were short-handed,” Dunbar said. “We had to fill in positions. And I had to kind of fill those roles with kids who normally don’t play those positions or who come off the bench. The girls are playing really well and are continuing to grow game by game.

Jackson Prep won the game despite going 10-for-36 from long distance. That’s because the Lady Patriots came up with 18 total steals and pulled down 36 total rebounds — 20 on the offensive end and 16 on the defensive end. Margie Frye led them in rebounding with eight boards, six of them on the offensive end.

Cate Drane led Cathedral with 15 points and Bella Milligan had 10 points. Lauren Dunbar was held to just five points.

The Lady Green Wave (7-11) played host to MAIS District 3-5A opponent Central Hinds Academy Tuesday night.

Copiah Academy girls 58, Cathedral 38 (Friday night)

GALLMAN — Cate Drane led the Cathedral High School Lady Green Wave with a game-high 25 points, but a cold-shooting third quarter allowed the Copiah Academy Lady Colonels to take a 58-38 win last Friday night in MAIS District 3-5A action.

Claire Davis led Copiah Academy with 19 points while Charley Davis and Roge’ne Hillard scored 11 points each for the Lady Colonels, who outscored Cathedral 22-6 in the momentum-swinging third quarter for a 41-26 lead.

“We played great defense the entire game,” Lady Green Wave head coach Bernita Dunbar said. “The third quarter our shooting went flat. They outscored us with a great margin. The 3-point line was the trend for Copiah Academy.  They made four 3s in that quarter. We were unable to get our shooting going coming out of halftime.”

Cathedral jumped out to a 13-10 lead over Copiah Academy at the end of the first quarter and then took a 20-19 lead into halftime before the Lady Green Wave went ice cold from the field in the third quarter. The Lady Colonels made sure there would be no rally by the visitors from Cathedral as they outscored the Lady Green Wave 17-12 in the fourth quarter.

Drane was the only Lady Green Wave player to score in double figures. The next high scorer for them was Lauren Dunbar with seven points. 

With the loss, the Lady Green Wave dropped to 7-10 overall and 2-2 in district play.