NATCHEZ — Phillip Jones led an athletic Piney Woods School basketball team to a convincing 70-45 win over the Cathedral Green Wave on Cathedral’s home floor Friday night.

Jones scored 38 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and Kenneth Taylor helped out with 14 points to lead the high-flying Tornadoes to the win.

“First thing is I’m thankful the backboards didn’t shatter,” Cathedral head coach Peter Arnold said after Piney Woods had numerous dunks against the Green Wave.

Cathedral hung with Piney Woods for much of the first half, and overall Arnold thought his team played well against a team that had a significant size advantage on the Green Wave.

“We did a pretty dang good job,” he said. “We tried to slow it down as much as you can, but (Piney Woods) are race horses. It wasn’t a fair fight.”

Arnold was also impressed with Jones’ performance.

“There’s a reason he is a dandy dozen (player),” he said.

The Green Wave fell behind 14-6 after one quarter of play and trailed 31-18 at the half. Cathedral had trouble breaking Piney Woods’ full-court press, however, and it led to some easy baskets for Piney Woods.

“Any hesitation or if you make a bad decision they got it and they’re gone,” Arnold said.

Piney Woods continued to pressure Cathedral in the third quarter and stretched its lead to 20 by the end of the third quarter.

Cathedral’s D.J. Perry led the team in scoring with 14 points but was limited most of the game after picking up three early fouls. Khalil Brice added 10 points in the contest and Carl Hammitte chipped in with nine points of his own.

Arnold said Cathedral executed fairly well in the contest, but Piney Woods’ athleticism and height were too much to overcome.

“I don’t think they just outplayed us, just their size was too much,” he said.

The loss dropped Cathedral to 11-9 on the season and 1-3 in MHSAA Region 7-1A.

Cathedral will take the floor again Tuesday at Hinds AHS.

Piney Woods girls 42, Cathedral 25

The Piney Woods girls’ basketball team used a big third quarter to beat the Lady Green Wave 42-25 Friday night.

Cathedral trailed by just two at the half before Piney Woods outscored the Lady Green Wave 17-4 in the third frame.

Ginny Daggett and Kennedy Gray led Cathedral with six points each in the contest.

Piney Woods’ Raven Thompson led all scorers with 15 points.

The loss dropped the Lady Green Wave to 2-15 on the season and 0-4 in region play.