NATCHEZ — The wins seem to come easy for the Trinity Episcopal Saints early in the season as they grabbed their third straight victory for a perfect 3-0 start.

The third win came Monday night against Centreville Academy in a 45-point drubbing, 69-24.

Four Saints scored in double figures with Tommy McCall recording a game-high 19 points. Michael Whitley also had 14 while Wyatt Boothe and Arzell McCoy tallied 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Michael Spangler for Centreville had a team high seven points followed by Jordan Clark’s five points.

Trinity head coach Edwin White said his team doesn’t have the chemistry he is hoping for just yet, but until they reach that point, they’ll have to rely solely on defense.

“We’ve been working on defense because we still don’t have the chemistry that I’m comfortable with, but I think they are coming along,” White said.

The Saints kept Centreville in the game in the opening minutes as Trinity led 9-4 before a time out was called. From there, the Saints jumped out in a full-court press that really got the ball rolling.

Trey Hall recorded the first of his many steals at the five-minute mark before throwing an alley-oop to Arzell McCoy, who laid it in.

Before the Tigers knew it, they were down 26-8 by the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the aggressive press that consisted of pure athletes devastated the Tigers’ offense and brought them to a point of no return as Tommy McCoy recorded four lay-ups in a row off of their full-court pressure all in a minute’s time that put the Saints ahead 41-9.

Centreville scored its first field goal of the quarter on a lay up by Daniel Hollingsworth with 1:30 to go, but it was all of the offense they could create before the half ended 44-11.

The Saints slowed down their offense and allowed every player to see some minutes in the second half as they outscored the Tigers just 11-6 in the third quarter and 14-7 in the final quarter to take the victory 69-24.

White said the Saints have always been adamant about making defense their first priority in a game that only allowed the Tigers 24 points.

“Defense has always been our reputation,” White said. “Defense converts to offense and the more the kids work hard on defense, the easier offense is.

“If they get in their minds to play defense all the time, then it won’t be so hard when they need to do it.”

The Saints will play at Silliman Institute at 7:30 p.m. today while Centreville will host Ben’s Ford at 7:30 p.m.

Centreville girls 34,

Trinity Episcopal girls 33

The Trinity Episcopal Lady Saints couldn’t hold on to their first half 20-17 lead against Centreville Monday as they were ousted 34-33 at home.

Marty Lewis put up 14 points as the Lady Saints’ only double-digit scorer, and Katelynn Bell for Centreville tallied 12 points while Katelyn Chandler added 11 points.

With the game tied 32-32 with two minutes left, Lewis hit one of two free throws for a 33-32 lead.

With one minute left, the Lady Tigers’ Sydnie Lyons grabbed a Trinity rebound and went coast-to-coast for a lay up that put Centreville ahead 34-33.

With 17 seconds left on the clock, the Lady Saints had ample opportunities, grabbing offense rebound after offensive rebound to go up one point but couldn’t get any offense going as they fell 34-33.

Trinity will play at Silliman Institute at 6 p.m. today while Centreville hosts Ben’s Ford at 6 p.m. today.