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NATCHEZ — Tiqi Griffin scored 10 of his game-high 16 points in the first quarter as the Adams County Christian School Rebels defeated the Central Hinds Academy Cougars 44-35 last Tuesday night to stay undefeated in MAIS District 3-5A.

ACCS jumped out to a 21-9 lead over Central Hinds by the end of the first quarter and, for the most part, kept the Cougars at bay despite their own shooting woes from the start of the second quarter to the end of the game.

“We came out doing real well. We held them to nine points in the first quarter. We’ve been taking pride in our first-quarter defense,” Rebels head coach Matthew Freeman said. “That’s five games in a row that we held our opponent to single digits in the first quarter.”

Central Hinds kept switching defenses and gave the Rebels different looks throughout the rest of the game to try to give the Cougars a chance of pulling off the upset. The problem was they, too, had trouble getting the ball into the basket.

“We didn’t shoot well after that (first quarter),” Freeman said. “We shot poorly from outside.

While the Cougars did outscore ACCS 8-7 in the second quarter to go into halftime down 28-17, the Rebels put the game away with an 11-4 advantage in the third quarter for a 39-21 lead. With such a big lead, Freeman put his younger players in the game for the fourth quarter. That allowed the Cougars to outscore the Rebels 14-5, but it was not enough.

“The fourth quarter, I like to get some playing time for the younger guys. They were able to cut into the lead. It was a good experience for the other guys,” Freeman said.

DK McGruder scored 11 points while E’Darius “Big E” Green finished with six points for the Rebels, who improved to 18-4 overall and 6-0 in district play. They played at district and cross-town rival Cathedral High School for the Green Wave’s Senior Night on Thursday night in a game that was rescheduled from Friday, Jan. 14 due to COVID-19 protocols within the Green Wave’s program. After that, they travel to Gallman to take on another district foe in Copiah Academy at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Central Hinds Academy girls defeat ACCS (Tues. night)

NATCHEZ — The Central Hinds Academy Lady Cougars defeated the Adams County Christian School Lady Rebels last Tuesday night. No other information, including a final score, was available. 

The Lady Rebels (no records available) play at Cathedral High School Thursday night and then at Copiah Academy at 6 p.m. Friday in a pair of key MAIS District 3-5A games. It will also be Senior Night at Cathedral.