CLINTON, La. — The Adams County Christian School Lady Rebels not only defeated but annihilated the Silliman Institute Lady Wildcats on Silliman’s home court in the girls’ championship game of the MAIS District 5-AA Tournament.

For the second straight game, No. 1 seed Silliman got off to a slow start. But unlike their win over Central Private in the semifinals, the Lady Wildcats ran into a buzzsaw Saturday night as No. 2 seed ACCS defeated Silliman 48-30 to win the district championship.

“The girls played the most beautiful ball all season. Every loose ball, every hustle play, every rebound. I cannot say enough about the game tonight,” Lady Rebels head coach Melanie Hall said. “They played beautifully for four quarters.”

Even though Sydney Sones had her usual game for Silliman (16-10) by leading all scorers with 18 points, no one else for the Lady Wildcats stepped up their game and that was largely in part to ACCS’s defense.

The Lady Rebels quieted the home crowd by taking it to the Lady Wildcats. At the end of the first quarter, ACCS led Silliman 15-9. Even though the second quarter went back and forth between the two teams, ACCS managed to outscore Silliman 12-10 for a 27-19 halftime lead.

In second half, the Lady Rebels continued to frustrate the Lady Wildcats with their stifling defense. Silliman was held to just two points in the fourth quarter and 11 points for the entire second half.

“In the huddle, the girls said, ‘Coach Hall, where does the glory go?” I said, ‘The glory goes to God,’” Hall said. “Before the Centreville game (in the semifinals), I told them I’ve been waiting 11 days for this because that’s how long it’s been since we last played. One of the girls said, ‘I’ve been waiting two years for this.’”

Taylor Welch led ACCS (21-8) with 16 points while Rachel Holloway scored 11 points and Marlee Wadsworth added 10 points.

“The preparation, the hard work, the preseason, the regular season puts you in contention to play for a district championship. We started two years ago. That paid off for them,” Hall said.

In the third-place game Saturday afternoon, the third-seeded Centreville Academy Lady Tigers defeated the fifth-seeded Central Private School Lady Rebels. Centreville (6-17) will be the No. 3 seed out of District 5-AA for next week’s Class AA South State Tournament, which starts next Tuesday and will be held at Brookhaven Academy. ACCS will be the No. 1 seed and Silliman will be the No. 2 seed.

Centreville 75, WCCA 60

CLINTON, La. — Centreville Academy’s undefeated reign in MAIS District 5-AA came to an end Saturday night with, what else, a win as the Tigers defeated the Wilkinson County Christian Academy Rams by 15 points in the boys’ championship game.

Top-seeded Centreville, which won all 10 games in district play during the regular season and routed ACCS in the semifinal round, won the district championship by jumping out to a big lead in the first half and then overcoming a bad third quarter.

“We came out and played defense. Defense is going to win games for you,” Tigers head coach Jason Horne said.

WCCA, the No. 2 seed, sure could attest to that. Centreville’s defense led to easy transition lay-ups and open shots. The Tigers led the Rams 20-9 at the end of the first quarter and 44-24 at halftime. But just when it looked like the Tigers were on their way to an easy win, the Rams fought back in the third quarter.

With Tip McKenzie and Darius Hunter leading the way, WCCA outscored Centreville 14-6 and the lead was down to 12 points as the quarter came to an end. McKenzie finished with 21 points and Hunter had 15 points for the Rams (12-10).

“We had a letdown in the third quarter. They went man and they pressed us a little bit. We turned the ball over some. We missed some shots. We got away from what we were doing,” Horne said. “But we got back to what we were doing toward the end of the third. Then we stepped it up in the fourth quarter. But it starts with our defense.”

Led by Colby Lockwood and Jamie Dezendorf, Centreville (16-8) outscored WCCA 25-22 in the fourth quarter. Lockwood led all scorers with 26 points and Dezendorf had 24 points.

Centreville will be the No. 1 seed and WCCA the No. 2 seed out of District 5-AA for the MAIS Class AA South State Tournament

Central Private boys 61,

ACCS 58

CLINTON, La. — After being held in check in the first half, Lance Wicker came alive for Central Private School in the third quarter and finished with a game-high 24 points as the third-seeded Rebels rallied to defeat the fifth-seeded Adams County Christian School Rebels in the third-place game Saturday afternoon.

“We had the lead at halftime, 24-19. In the third quarter, Lance made some big shots for them. To say the least, we had a hand on him. We played some good defense,” ACCS head coach Rick Fife said.

Both teams had a hard time getting shots to fall in the early goings of the game. By the time the first quarter came to an end, Central Private had a 9-7 lead over ACCS. But in the second quarter, the shots were going in for ACCS and that helped the Rebels from Natchez take the five-point lead over the Rebels from Baker, La.

But with the combination of Wicker’s shooting prowess and a change in defense, Central Private grabbed the lead away from ACCS during the third quarter thanks to a 20-11 advantage.

“I thought the third quarter was the difference. They went to a full-court man and we pressed the issue,” Fife said. Yet ACCS, led by Lee Swinney, Dillon Johnson and Daniel Guedon, would not go away quietly.

Even though Central Private scored 22 points in the fourth quarter, ACCS (9-16) had an opportunity to force overtime trailing 61-58 with time running out.

“We had a good look at the end of the game to send it into overtime, but we missed the shot,” Fife said. “I thought we fought hard for four quarters. We rebounded well. Thought we hustled well for four quarters. My kids played hard. That’s all you can ask.”

Swinney led ACCS with 22 points, Johnson had 19 points and Guedon chipped in with 12 points. Jason Young scored 13 points and Kerry Burns added 10 points for Central Private (10-12), which advanced to the Class AA South State Tournament with the win.