NATCHEZ — When the Cathedral Green Wave traveled to Madison to take on St. Joseph, they only fell by six. But when the Bruins arrived in Natchez, the results were nearly opposite.

After losing James Coley to an injury in the first quarter and having leading scorer R.J. Givens out sick, Cathedral struggled to keep up with St. Joe and the Bruins rolled to a 68-36 win.

“With R.J. Givens being sick, our number one post player off the bench hurting both of his ankles last week and then James Alan hurting his ankle, none of that helped,” Cathedral head coach Peter Arnold said. “We started off fine, but then we hit that spell where we start missing those close shots.”

Cathedral trailed by just two after the first quarter, but eight minutes later as the teams went to the locker room for halftime, the Green Wave found themselves down 10.

“As long as the game is close, we are OK,” Arnold said. “But then, all of a sudden, they are up eight or 10 and you could just see the life leave out of us. It shouldn’t happen, but it happens.”

With Coley out, the Green Wave had to turn to Wyatt Boothe to take care of business in the paint. But with a lengthy St. Joe team with three players standing at least six-feet-three-inches, the task proved to be too much.

“It is very difficult because at each position they are longer than us,” Arnold said. “Our only real size out there at one point was Wyatt, and that isn’t enough to get it done, bottom line.”

St. Joe head coach Nicholas Stamps said he knew once Boothe fouled out in the third quarter and Coley was forced to leave, the Bruins would have the advantage.

“Basketball is a big man’s game,” Stamps said. “I’ve seen a lot of short quick guys get slow and tired at the end of a game, but I’ve never seen a tall guy get shorter. There is so much value to having size.”

Stamps said that he knew the challenge would be tough, facing Cathedral for the third time this season, but that he preached to his team about bringing their best effort to the game.

“They are a tough team,” he said. “We knew what they were about, so we had the mindset going in that if we don’t play our ‘A’ game, they are going to beat us.”

Despite only playing one quarter, Coley was the leading scorer for Cathedral with eight points. Jardarius Anderson and William Doss each added six.

St. Joe’s three-headed attack of Keoako Trevillies, Nick Bohannon and Chauncey Taylor combined for 46 of the team’s points.

The turnaround is a quick one for Cathedral as they head to Mississippi School for the Deaf today.

“The good thing about basketball is there is another game coming around the corner,” Arnold said. “When you win, you don’t have a lot of time to sit around and pat yourself on the back, and when you lose, you can’t sit around and cry about it. You just have to suck it up, get back out there and keep playing.”