Just a few weeks ago, East Webster watched a last-second shot fall against a higher-classification team in Amory that led to heartbreak, and the team felt that heartbreak again on Nov. 15. With Class 3A Nettleton in Cumberland, the Wolverines fought back from an early double-digit deficit and were trying to run away with the game in the final 3 minutes. Instead, the Tigers would hang around and have a chance in the last possession. A layup on a drive down the lane rolled off the rim and was rebounded on the back side offensively for a game winner as time expired. Final score: Nettleton 69, East Webster 67. It was another tough pill to swallow for Jon Ginn and his team, but a good teaching moment. “That’s a good 3A team. They’ve got almost everybody back from last year, and I told our kids going into the game this was going to be a really good opponent to see where we’re at,” Ginn said. “We gave the game away with some poor decisions. This is the first game with everybody back so we’re meshing and trying to get a rhythm.” “As far as effort and getting after it, I was pleased. I tried to encourage them that this was the same way that we got beat against Amory. Sometimes a loss is a great way to get a fire lit under you.” The Wolverines would shoot 24-of-61 from the field, 6-of-25 from the 3-point line and 13-of-24 from the free throw line. It wasn’t the hottest nights from the field, but EWHS played hard on the defensive end and made things incredibly difficult for the Tigers. It was a resilient bunch of Wolverines to battle back from the deficit in the first half. Nettleton led 18-12 after a quarter and pushed that lead out to 27-14 with a 9-0 run. But the Wolverines started to use that defense to create offense and had a 12-0 run themselves that gave them the first lead of the night at 27-26 with 3 minutes left in the half. At halftime, the Wolverines led 34-33. In a back-and-forth third quarter, EWHS would push the lead out to four briefly thanks to a 10-0 run, and it would be 52-50 going into the fourth. The team put the foot on the gas pedal in the first few minutes of the final frame and got out to as much as a 66- 57 lead with 3:30 left, but things began to unravel. Nettleton allowed just one point the rest of the way and kept creeping closer and closer until it tied the game. That set up a final possession with under 30 seconds left, and the Tigers would get that game-winner. In defeat, Cael Chrismond led the way with 17 points. The senior, who transferred back to EWHS from Starkville Christian after a year away, was incredibly efficient in the game going 6-of-9 and hitting six of his first seven shots. He also was 5-of-7 from the free throw line. The game was the first with football players as EWHS now has its full team. Ginn liked what he saw from the group. “We played 10 guys and kept fresh guys on the floor. At times, we pressured a team that’s quicker than us,” Ginn said. “When you’ve got guys who are good enough and skilled enough you can interchange a lot of things. I like this team. I think this team has a lot of upside and potential.” The Wolverines got back in the win column later in the week with a 74-58 win over Noxapater to move to 2-3 on the year. The team was to play two games this week before press time against Belmont and Shannon. Lady Wolverines It the brutality of the boys game against Nettleton wasn’t enough, the girls lost in similar fashion. With 0.3 seconds left on the clock, a foul was called down low on the Lady Wolverines, and the Lady Tigers made a free throw to win the ball game. The loss dropped the team to 2- 3 in Courtney O’Briant-Wright’s opening season. The toughest thing about the loss is the chances that the Lady Wolverines had to put the game completely out of reach. The team shot an incredible 14- of-39 from the free throw line with star player Shameriah Culpepper going 6-of20 in the loss. Culpepper could have had a career night with a few free throw makes as she was strong in the paint scoring 24 points overall. The Lady Wolverines also got a major spark when things weren’t going well from D’Nasia Logan, who scored 15 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter. “Our defense has to get better. We’re fouling too much so we have to move our feet and do what we need to do on defense,” O’Briant-Wright said. “We’re starting off too slow. We’ve got to pick it up from beginning to end. My main goal is from the tip, we do what we need to do.” The Lady Wolverines also would get a win on Thursday against Noxapater. A 30-16 lead at the half was taken out to a 50-30 lead heading to the fourth on the way to a 61-49 win. Logan had another great game scoring 21 points, pulling down seven rebounds and grabbing five steals. Culpepper also had a great game with 19 points on 9-of-13 with seven rebounds. Nekendra Patterson finished with 10 points. The Lady Wolverines (3-2) were to be back in action this week going on the road to take on New Albany before Thanksgiving. The Bulldogs and Wolverines were to play on Tuesday.
