NATCHEZ — The Cathedral School girls’ basketball team could not get a shot to fall in the waning minutes of its game Friday night with West Lincoln High School.

Sarah Beth Willard scored 10 of her game-high 12 points in the second half, but with the Lady Wave trailing by one possession late in the game, the ball would just not drop for Willard or her teammates.

Cathedral missed several opportunities to tie the game, and West Lincoln did just enough defensively and at the free throw line to secure a 38-34 victory.

“We held them pretty good defensively,” Cathedral head coach Randy Smith said. “It was a slugfest on both sides, but we could not hit a shot. They hit a few shots late, and we didn’t.”

Cathedral fought back from an early deficit and led 16-13 at halftime, before West Lincoln went on a 16-9 run in the third quarter to take control.

Taylor Beesley scored seven points in the contest, and Kennedy Gray netted six points.

West Lincoln did its part to help Cathedral stay alive in the fourth quarter by missing several free throws that would have put the game out of reach for Cathedral.

But with five seconds to go in the game, and Cathedral trailing by three, Destiny Allen made one of two foul shots to put the game out of reach.

The Lady Wave did get some good looks at the basket late, but none dropped.

“I feel that we did run the offense well, we just need to shoot a little bit better,” Smith said.

Cathedral dropped to 6-12 overall and 1-2 in MHSAA Region 7-1A with the loss. The Lady Wave will host Piney Woods Friday.

West Lincoln boys 70, Cathedral 36

The opening tip-off pretty much told the story of Cathedral’s contest with West Lincoln Tuesday night.

West Lincoln’s Sam Bivens easily won the tip forward to Jared Case. Case then lobbed a pass to Lucas Burris, who finished it off with a dunk and gave the Bears a 2-0 lead less than three seconds into the game.

By halftime the Bears led the Green Wave 43-10, and both teams cleared the bench in the second half as West Lincoln cruised to a 70-36 win.

“We hustled and played hard,” Cathedral head coach Peter Arnold said. “They are just very good. They are a lot bigger than us, and that was obvious from the opening tip.”

The bright spot for the Green Wave came late in the game when sophomore Jacob Hamilton came into the game and scored 11 points in the final quarter to lead the Green Wave.

“For Jacob Hamilton to get 11 points in the fourth quarter is great,” Arnold said. “It’s good to get people playing time, especially with how young we are. It will help down the road.”

Sam Fury scored nine points for the Green Wave, and Alex Weadock added six points.

In the end, 19 players scored in the contest, 12 from West Lincoln.

Duane Marshall led the Bears with 13 points.

Cathedral (6-12, 0-3) will host Piney Woods Friday.