BOGUE CHITTO — Juan Gray scored 21 of his game-high 28 points by halftime to lead the Cathedral Green Wave to an easy 65-32 win over the Sacred Heart Crusaders Tuesday night in the first round of the Region 8-1A Tournament.

Cathedral, the No. 2 seed in the boys’ bracket, led 16-6 after one quarter of play and then used a 20-6 advantage in the second quarter to put the game away. The Green Wave didn’t let up in the third quarter, outscoring No. 7 seed Sacred Heart 17-4 to take a 53-18 lead.

“We came out and played great. We got after it from the start,” Green Wave head coach Peter Arnold said. “Juan had four threes. Defensively, we were too much for them. It was over in the first half and we got to play some players. Good way to start the playoffs.”

With the Green Wave’s reserves on the floor in the fourth quarter, the Crusaders were able to outscore them 16-12.

In addition to Gray’s 28-point performance, Cathedral (23-5) got 10 points from Jamerson Jones. Jack Fitzpatrick led Sacred Heart with 14 points and Lex Agnew added 12 points.

Cathedral will take on the winner of the Resurrection-Dexter game in a semifinal round game Thursday at 8:30 p.m.

Natchez High 81, Jim Hill 67

JACKSON — Natchez High came into the Division 6-5A Tournament on a downward trend, having lost a late game to Greenville-Weston in the regular season.

However, the Bulldogs put that behind them as they broke open a tie game in the second quarter and never relinquished its lead en route to a surprising 14-point win over Jim Hill in a first-round game Tuesday night.

With the win, Natchez High (15-12) will take on the winner of the Terry-Wingfield game in the boys’ championship game Friday night at 7:30.

After the first quarter ended in a 15-15 tie, the third-seeded Bulldogs outscored the second-seeded Tigers 22-17 in the second quarter to take a 37-32 halftime lead. But it was the third quarter that proved to be key to Natchez High’s win as the Bulldogs outscored Jim Hill 20-12 for a 57-44 lead.

The Tigers were unable to stop the Bulldogs’ offense in the fourth quarter despite scoring 23 points of their own.

Kendall Logan led Natchez High with 23 points while James Reed and Deshawn Griggs finished with 13 points each. J. Smith led Jim Hill with 16 points and J. Stringer scored 13 points.

Centreville 73, Chamberlain-Hunt 57

COLUMBIA — After an up-and-down first half, Centerville went to work on both ends of the court and outscored Chamberlain-Hunt 37-23 in the second half en route to a 16-point win in the first round of the MPSA Class AA South State Tournament at Columbia Academy.

Four players scored in double figures for Centreville. Kyle Brown led the Tigers, the No. 2 seed from District 5-AA, with 24 points and Cade Lockwood had 21 points. Adam Perry and Jamie Dezendorf scored 13 points each.

Centreville took a 20-12 lead over Chamberlain-Hunt at the end of the first quarter, but the Wildcats got back in the game by outscoring the Tigers 22-16 in the second quarter to trail by just two points at halftime.

Whatever Centreville head coach Jason Horne said at halftime worked. The Tigers increased their lead to five points at the end of the third quarter and then put the game away by outscoring the Wildcats 20-9 in the fourth quarter.

Chamberlain-Hunt, the No. 3 seed from District 3-AA, also had four players score in double figures. Leading the Wildcats were Corey White and Andre Jeffrey with 12 points each. Dane Rickles added 11 points and Oliver Sinquefield chipped in with 10 points.

Centreville will take on the Columbia Academy Cougars, the No. 2 seed from District 4-AA, in a quarterfinals game Thursday at 7:45 p.m.