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NATCHEZ — It was perhaps no surprise that Cathedral High School’s varsity girls’ basketball team defeated the Adams County Christian School Lady Rebels 50-24 last Tuesday night in their MAIS District 4-5A and cross-town rivalry game at the Roy A. Garcia Gym on the Cathedral School campus.

But what was stunning was that a Cathedral High School Green Wave squad that came into its home game against the ACCS Rebels winless in district play came away with a shocking 61-54 win and made sure that the Rebels would not run the table in District 4-5A.

“Cathedral had a real good environment over there. They have a good student section. We didn’t handle the situation very well,” ACCS head coach Matthew Freeman said. “We had 22 turnovers, so I wasn’t shocked with the outcome. You can’t beat anybody with 22 turnovers.”

The Green Wave jumped out to a 16-11 lead over the Rebels by the end of the first quarter. The second quarter was more of the same on both ends of the court as Cathedral put up 14 points while holding ACCS to just nine points for a 30-20 halftime lead.

“Our boys came out to play. ACCS is a really good team that beat us by 17 earlier in the month. We came in with a game plan and they executed it perfectly,” Green Wave head coach Jonathan Albright said.

Just days after scoring a career-high and school-record-tying 42 points in a win over St. Aloysius, Landon McGuire was pretty much held in check by a Cathedral defense that made sure that he would not be the difference in the outcome of this game.

While Lance White stepped up to lead ACCS with 21 points and Tyson Young contributed with 14 points, McGuire was held to just 12 points.

“They double-teamed Landon and tried to get the ball out of his hands. Lance had a big game for us. We knew somebody else was going to have to step up,” Freeman said. “They were going to make sure that Landon wasn’t the reason they lost. They did a good job playing defense on him.”

ACCS tried to mount a comeback in the third quarter as the Rebels outscored the Green Wave 13-8 to make it a 38-33 game in Cathedral’s favor. But in a high-scoring, back-and-forth fourth quarter, the Green Wave managed to outscore the Rebels 23-21.

Grayson Gay led Cathedral with a game-high 27 points to go with 10 rebounds and four steals. Justin Hawkins added 14 points, including 10 straight points in the fourth quarter after dealing with foul trouble earlier in the game, and Cam Tanner poured in 10 points.

“Grayson Gay really stepped up and provided a much-needed offensive spark for us, and our defense carried us as everyone played their role perfectly,” Albright said. “Justin had four fouls in the second quarter, making sophomore Tralyn Cusic come in for two quarters and lead us, and he did a phenomenal job. Really proud of my boys.

The Rebels fell to 16-2 overall and 5-1 in district play. The next play at Copiah Academy at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The Green Wave improved to 12-14 overall and 1-4 in district play. They played at district and longtime arch-rival St. Aloysius High School at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

In the varsity girls’ game, Cathedral trailed ACCS 10-9 after one quarter of play before putting on a defensive clinic over the final three quarters.

Led by Kinslee Young and EC Lewis, the Lady Green Wave outscored the Lady Rebels 17-4 in the second quarter for a 26-14 halftime lead and then 10-5 in the third quarter and 14-5 in the fourth quarter.

Young led Cathedral with a game-high 19 points and Lewis finished with nine points. Makenzie Campbell led ACCS with eight points and Kessley Maples had seven points.

The Lady Green Wave (no records available) traveled to Vicksburg to take on St. Aloysius High School at 6 p.m. Thursday. The Lady Rebels fell to 5-13 overall and 2-4 in district play. They next travel to Gallman to take on district opponent Copiah Academy at 6 p.m. Friday.