NATCHEZ — Shelby Mason scored 22 points and the Adams County Christian School Lady Rebels needed every one of them as they held on for a 37-36 win over the Silliman Institute Lady Wildcats Saturday night to win the girls’ championship of the MAIS District 5-AAA Tournament at Cathedral School.

ACCS, the No. 1 seed, led by three points with less than a minute to go in the game and had its chance to put the game away at the free-throw line. However, the Lady Rebels made just one of them to go up four, leaving No. 2 seed Silliman a bit of an opening to possibly force overtime.

Instead, all the Lady Wildcats could manage was one 3-pointer with two seconds left. The Lady Rebels got the ball inbounds and time expired. Head coach Melanie Hall said had they not made that free throw, how they defended against Silliman would have been different.

“It was just seconds left. They just stood there. We knew not to foul them,” Hall said. “That was all strategy. The girls know how big free throws are.”

The Lady Rebels entered the fourth quarter with a 33-27 lead, but they struggled to get shots to fall and that allowed Silliman to stay in the game. But at the same time, the Lady Wildcats didn’t fare much better and only outscored the Lady Rebels 9-4.

“To God be the glory. It was a great team win. They had bought in and worked hard through the adversity,” Hall said. “This was their first goal they wanted to accomplish. I’m just so very proud of what this team has been able to do.”

Silliman led ACCS 10-7 after one quarter of play before the Lady Rebels outscored the Lady Wildcats 11-9 in the second quarter and 15-8 in the pivotal third quarter.

Marlee Magee added eight points while Drue Boyd had four points and Katherine Freeman chipped in with three points for the Lady Rebels, who were once again without injured point guard Danyel Weir.

Ashton Siebert and Alainna Weaver led the Lady Wildcats with eight points apiece.
As for winning the district title, Hall said, “It feels great. This one’s sweet. This one’s really special because of what these girls have been through together. Where these girls have come from from day one, it’s like ‘wow.’”

Hall added that Weir may be back for next week’s MAIS Class AAA South State Tournament at Columbia Academy.

“We just don’t know yet. It depends on how her ankle feels,” Hall said.

ACCS (8-14) will be the District 5 No. 1 seed for South State and will have a first-round bye. The Lady Rebels will take on the District 3 No. 3/District 4 No. 2 winner on either Wednesday or Thursday in the second round at a time to be determined. Silliman will be the district’s No. 2 seed and it also has a first-round bye. The Lady Wildcats will face the District 4 No. 3/District 3 No. 2 winner on either Wednesday or Thursday in the second round.

Cathedral girls 46, Central Private School 37

NATCHEZ — Bailey Graning led Cathedral High School with a game-high 16 points as the No. 4 seed Lady Green Wave upset the No. 3 seed Central Private School Lady Rebels 46-37 Saturday afternoon in the girls’ consolation game of the MAIS District 5-AAA Tournament.

Ryleigh Probst finished with 11 points and Hailey Ellis added 10 points for tournament host Cathedral, the ‘home’ team for this game. This was quite a turnaround offensively for the Lady Green Wave, which scored just 16 points in a semifinal loss to ACCS.

Central Private led Cathedral 10-9 at the end of the first quarter, but the Lady Green Wave began its charge with an 11-10 advantage in the second quarter to make it a 20-20 game at the half. They carried that momentum into the third quarter and ended up outscoring a stunned Lady Rebels team 16-7 for a 36-29 lead. Both teams scored 10 points in the fourth quarter.

Sally Ann Torres led Central Private with 11 points and Breanna Threeton chipped in with 10 points.

With the win, Cathedral (6-21) will be the District 5 No. 3 seed for the MAIS Class AAA South State Tournament at Columbia Academy and will take on the District 4 No. 4 seed in the first round on either Monday or Tuesday at a time to be determined. Central Private will be the district’s No. 4 seed and will face off with the District 3 No. 4 seed in a first-round match-up on Monday or Tuesday at a time to be determined.

ACCS boys 54, Cathedral 49

NATCHEZ — Wes Stockstill led a balanced scoring attack for No. 3 seed Adams County Christian School with 10 points as the Rebels bounced back from a rough first quarter to defeat the No. 4 seed Cathedral High School Green Wave 54-49 Saturday afternoon in the boys’ consolation game of the MAIS District 5-AAA Tournament at Cathedral School.

Six players scored between six and 10 points for ACCS. Glaston Magee and Dawson Parker each had nine points, Tyler Lindsey contributed with eight points, Andrew Merriett ended up with seven points, and Yohan Thompson added six points for the Rebels.

Cathedral, the tournament host and therefore the ‘home’ team in this game between cross-town rivals, got off a good start on both ends of the court and led ACCS 17-6 by the end of the first quarter. But the Rebels countered with 17 points of their own in the second quarter to go into halftime down just two points, 25-23.

After both teams scored 14 points in the third quarter, the Rebels outscored the Green Wave 17-10 in the fourth quarter to complete the comeback victory.

Sam Mosby led the Green Wave with a game-high 20 points while Colby Passman had 10 points and J.T. Harris scored nine points.

ACCS (3-19) will be the District 5 No. 3 seed and will take on the District 4 No. 4 seed on either Monday or Tuesday at a time to be determined in the first round of the MAIS Class AAA South State Tournament at Columbia Academy.

Cathedral (6-2) will be the district’s No. 4 seed and will go up against the District 3 No. 4 seed at a time to be determined on Monday or Tuesday in a first-round game.

WCCA sweeps District 4-A Tournament titles on its home court

WOODVILLE — It was a good Saturday afternoon for Wilkinson County Christian Academy’s varsity basketball teams on their home court as both the Rams and Lady Rams won the MAIS District 4-A Tournament championships.

The No. 1 seed WCCA Rams used a big third quarter to pull away for a 48-39 win over the No. 2 seed Discovery Christian School Lions in the boys’ title game.

“It was a hard-fought game. Just a great championship game,” Rams head coach Ken Perry said. “They ran man on us the whole ball game. It was no easy points, let’s put it that way.”

Discovery Christian took a 19-18 lead into halftime, but the Lions ran into foul trouble in the second half and WCCA responded in a big way as the Rams outscored the Lions 14-7 for a 32-26 lead.

“Their main guy came out and we took advantage of it,” Perry said. As for winning the district tournament title, he said, “It feels great. The guys worked hard this summer (to get to this point).”

D’mario Weathersby led the Rams with a game-high 19 points and R.J. Fisher had 11 points. The Lions were led by Brayden Evans with 18 points.

WCCA (23-6) will be the District 4 No. 1 seed and will take on the District 5 No. 4 seed on either Tuesday or Wednesday at a time to be determined in the first round of the MAIS Class A South State Tournament at Briarfield Acdemy in Lake Providence, La. Discovery Christian will be the district’s No. 2 seed and will go up against the District 5 No. 3 seed in a first-round contest on Tuesday or Wednesday at a time to be determined.

The No. 1 seed WCCA Lady Rams had an easier go of it than their male counterparts did as they took care of the No. 3 seed Rebul Academy Lady Raiders 37-14 to capture the girls’ championship.

WCCA jumped out to an 11-3 lead over Rebul at the end of the first quarter. And it actually got worst for the Lady Raiders – they didn’t score a single point in the second quarter and went into halftime down 23-3.

Give credit to Rebul for not giving up despite a big disadvantage in talent and experience. The Lady Raiders outscored the Lady Rams 6-3 in the third quarter, but WCCA made sure that the opposition would not pull off a second upset in the tournament thanks to an 11-5 edge in the fourth quarter.

Caroline Ford and Morgan Gardner led the Lady Rams with nine points each.

WCCA (10-15) will be the District 4 No. 1 seed at the Class A South State Tournament and will take on the District 5 No. 4 seed in a first-round match-up on either Tuesday or Wednesday at a time to be determined. Rebul Academy will be the district’s No. 2 seed and will face off with the District 5 No. 3 seed on Tuesday or Wednesday in the first roud at a time to be determined.

Glenmora girls 42, Monterey 27 (Fri. night)

GLENMORA, La. — The Monterey High School Lady Wolves had an opportunity to create havoc Friday night with a win over Glenmora High School in a pivotal LHSAA District 5-B game for both teams.

Both Monterey and Oak Hill High School entered the final regular-season game of district play one game back of the Lady Wildcats. A victory by the Lady Wolves, coupled with the Lady Rams’ blowout win over Grace Christian School, would have put all three of those teams in a first-place tie.

Instead, Glenmora made sure that would not be the case as the Lady Wildcats rolled to a 42-27 win over the Lady Wolves to win the district championship. Oak Hill finished second with a 4-2 mark in district play while Monterey had to settle for third place.

The Lady Wildcats (13-10, 5-1) only led the Lady Wolves 11-8 after one quarter of play before pulling away with a 12-4 advantage in the second quarter for a 23-12 lead at halftime.

Andy Gray led the Lady Wolves with 20 points, but only two of her teammates found the scoring column.

Monterey (20-8, 3-3) will learn its seeding, first-round opponent, day and time for the LHSAA Class B Playoffs on Monday, Feb. 11.

General Trass 81, Vidalia 71 (Fri. night)

LAKE PROVIDENCE, La. — The Vidalia High School Vikings could not have picked a worse time for their offense to go cold then the waning moments of the fourth quarter – and against one of the worst teams in LHSAA District 2-2A.

Vidalia had four players score in double figures, but the Vikings’ allowed five players for General Trass High School to score in double figures, which was on of the factors in the Panthers’ stunning 81-71 come-from-behind district win over the Vidalia Friday night.

Another was the Vikings’ lack of scoring with less than two minutes remaining in the ball game. And that was after they had a 56-52 lead at the end of the third quarter.

“We had the lead for three quarters. They took the lead at the 7:00 mark of the fourth quarter,” Vikings head coach Robert Sanders said. “It went back and forth until the 1:39 mark when they took a three-point lead and we didn’t hit another basket. They hit their shots and free throws.”

The Panthers ended up outscoring the Vikings 29-15 over the final eight minutes of regulation. And while it was a big win for General Trass (5-19, 3-9), it was a demoralizing loss for Vidalia, which finished fourth in the district standings behind Rayville High School, Delhi Charter School, and Ferriday High School.

DeMikal McCoy led the Vikings with 18 points while RayJay Ransom had 16 points, Jaquan Wilson scored 14 points, and Malachi Matthews added 11 points.

Vidalia (13-14, 6-6) will play host to Sicily Island High School in a make-up game from earlier in the season on Tuesday at 7:25 p.m. That will be preceded by the junior varsity boys’ game at 6 p.m.