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NATCHEZ — The Adams County Christian School Lady Rebels knew what was on the line last Friday night at the Bob Ulmer Gym on the ACCS campus against MAIS District 4-5A opponent St. Aloysius High School — a win for ACCS and the Lady Rebels will be in next month’s Class 5A South State Tournament.

And the duo of D’Kiyah Davis and Josie Gamberi made sure that the St Aloysius Lady Flashes would not get in their way. Davis finished with a game-high 19 points while Gamberi added eight points and grabbed some key rebounds as the ACCS Lady Rebels held for a 44-33 win.

“It was a must-win game for us to make the playoffs. We knew we had to beat St. Al twice to get in the playoffs,” ACCS head coach Matthew Freeman said.

With Davis hitting some big shots from the outside and the defense having its way with St. Aloysius, the Lady Rebels jumped out to a 17-5 lead by the end of the first quarter and then outscored the Lady Flashes 11-3 in the second quarter for a 28-8 halftime lead.

“We got a big game from D’Kiyah. She made four 3-pointers in the first half,” Freeman said. “We were able to hold them to eight points in the first half, which helped us get out to a good lead at halftime. Also had a big game from Josie Gamberi. She helped out a lot with rebounding.”

With Megan Therist and Taryn Lusby leading the way for St. Aloysius, the Lady Flashes tried to mount a comeback in the second half. Even though they outscored the Lady Rebels 15-8 in the third quarter and 10-8 in the fourth quarter, the 20-point halftime deficit was too big to overcome.

Therist led the Lady Flashes with nine points and Lusby poured in seven points.

The Lady Rebels improved to 6-13 overall and 2-3 in district play. They next traveled across town to take on District 4-5A and cross-town rival Cathedral High School at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

ACCS boys 74, St. Aloysius 50

NATCHEZ — Junior Landon McGuire had himself quite a performance for Adams County Christian School’s varsity boys’ basketball team by tying one school record and breaking another. So did senior Tyson Young with a triple-double.

McGuire finished with a career-high and school-record-tying 42 points while Young had 14 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists to lead the ACCS Rebels to a 74-50 win over the St. Aloysius Flashes last Friday night.

“Landon and Tyson both had big games for us,” said Matthew Freeman, head coach of both the Rebels and Lady Rebels. “Landon had 10 3-pointers, which is the record for ACCS basketball. We’re undefeated in district. I feel like we came out with a sense of urgency. I feel like when we play at ACCS, we come out with a lot of energy. They’ve only lost two home games the last three years.”

St. Aloysius did its best to keep up with ACCS in the early part of the game. The Flashes only trailed the Rebels 15-11 after one quarter, but the game got away from the visiting team from Vicksburg in the second quarter as ACCS outscored St. Aloysius 22-12 for a 37-23 halftime lead.

“Landon had a really big game for us. Tyson had a triple-double for us. We hit 16 3s overall as a team,” Freeman said. Another player who stepped up for ACCS was junior Braxton Hunt, who contributed with 12 points.

And while the Rebels continued to add to their lead in the second half, there was one thing Freeman was not at all pleased with — their perimeter defense.

“We didn’t do a good job running them off the 3-point line. They hit nine 3s themselves, so we’ve got to do better defending the 3-point line,” Freeman said.

Anthony McCloud led the Flashes with 16 points and Korey Simms chipped in with 11 points.

The Rebels improved to 18-1 overall and 5-0 in district play. They next played at District 4-5A and cross-town rival Cathedral High School at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.