By BILL BARKSDALE

NATCHEZ — The Cathedral High School Green Wave fell to the Oak Forest Academy Yellow Jackets 60-46 Tuesday night at home in the MAIS District 4-4A opener for both teams, due to frequent turnovers, missed shots and slow transitions back to defense.

Cathedral freshman Kaden Batieste was the highest scoring Green Wave by far, with 17 points to go with two rebounds.

“I felt I played decent, but not up to my potential,” Batieste said. “I realized my conditioning has slipped a little because I ran out of gas in the fourth quarter.”

Oak Forest built a seven-point lead by the end of the first quarter, a lead that the Green Wave never surmounted. The second and third quarters found Cathedral able to keep the baskets on even keel with the Yellow Jackets, but an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter sealed their defeat.

Taylor Strahan, first-year Cathedral head basketball coach said the story of the game was too many turnovers on our part.

“I was pleased with their effort, especially in the second and third quarters,” Strahan said. “And I was happy with the way they paced the game. It is a pace we have to play given our lack of a strong player on the post position.”

Cathedral seemed unable to stop Oak Forest sophomore Peyton Walker, who scored six unanswsered points in the fourth quarter alone and 13 for the game.

On Friday, Cathedral (10-9, 0-1) will host district and in-town rival Adams County Christian School, and Strahan hopes that the hype about the “biggest game of the year in Natchez” will energize his team to come out stronger and more determined.

“If we can limit our turnovers, we have a good chance against ACCS. They are a fast, very good team, with older and more experienced players,” Strahan said.