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FAYETTE — Natchez High School’s varsity girls’ basketball team did most of their work down low in the post as the Lady Bulldogs defeated the rival Jefferson County High School Lady Tigers 57-47 last Friday night.

Zamonie Wilson led Natchez High with a game-high 17 points while Olivia Davis had 14 points and Mikiah Proby added 13 points. And while Lady Bulldogs head coach Alphaka Moore was pleased to come out with a win over their longtime rivals, she added that there are some things that need to improve.

“I think it was a good up-tempo game. But going into our next game, we’ve got to make sure we improve on our free throws, which we’ve normally done a lot better. We shot below 40 percent, which is not good,” Moore said. “We shot 33 free throws (as a team) and only made nine of them, which is terrible.”

Not only that, Moore said her team missed a lot of shots from outside the paint. And those were the two things that kept Jefferson County in the ball game even though the Lady Tigers struggled themselves in the third quarter.

Natchez High was only up by one point, 12-11, after one quarter of play. That up-tempo style of play that Moore referred to resulted in the Lady Bulldogs outscoring the Lady Tigers 21-17 in the second quarter for a 33-28 halftime lead.

Then the Lady Bulldogs decided to switch up their defense in the third quarter to one that Moore said the Lady Tigers had not seen before that turned out to be huge for the visiting team. Natchez High outscored Jefferson County 14-6 to take a 47-34 advantage.

“It was a major change we made on defense. It worked in our favor,” Moore said.

The Lady Tigers did manage to outscore the Lady Bulldogs 13-10 in the fourth quarter, but it would not be nearly enough.

As for the performances of Wilson and Davis, Moore said. “They were around the basket. That’s were a lot of our baskets came from. That’s where a lot of our scoring came from. They had a lot of rebounds. They attacked the basket. I think Mikiah did a good job with her attack inside the paint as well. Defensive attack as well. That consistency from the paint was necessary for us to keep our lead.”

Jefferson County (no record available) was led by Zyer Smith with 15 points and Shaniya Clark with nine points.

The Lady Bulldogs (8-3) played host to Raymond High School at 6 p.m. before making the short trip to Meadville to take on Franklin County High School at 6 p.m. Friday.

Natchez High boys 81, Jefferson County 65

FAYETTE — The Natchez High School Bulldogs jumped out to a big lead in the early stages of their game last Friday night at rival Jefferson County High School and never looked back as they took care of the Tigers 81-65.

While Natchez High had no trouble getting shots to fall in the first quarter, the same could not be said for Jefferson County. By the time the game clock hit all zeroes to end that quarter, the Bulldogs put up 26 points while the Tigers only managed 13 points.

The next two quarters were more competitive, but the Bulldogs continued to add to their lead. They outscored the Tigers 20-18 in the second quarter for a 46-31 lead and 20-13 in the third quarter for a commanding 66-44 advantage.

Jefferson County tried to manage somewhat of a comeback in the fourth quarter on its home court as the Tigers outscored Natchez High 21-15. But the 22-point deficit after three quarters of play was too much to overcome.

The Bulldogs (8-3) hosted Raymond High School at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and then plays at Franklin County High School at 7:30 p.m. Friday.