The Lady Patriots of Winston Academy are maintaining their spot around the top of the state after winning two of three games last week and improved to 12-4 as well as winning their first conference game of the year.
That victory came on the road at Canton as Bailey Wood scored 15 to help WA win a thriller over the Lady Panthers in a 37-35 ball game.
They followed that with a tough defeat against East Rankin 32-29. Lilly Sisson scored 14 in the loss.
In the final game of the week against Hartfield, WA won another one possession game with a 31-28 victory. Wood had 15 points again to lead the way.
Things are slowing down for the Patriots ahead of the Christmas holidays and they have just one game this week as they travel to Nanih Waiya on Thursday.
BOYS
Justin Childs knew that this past week was going to be a step up in competition for Winston Academy as the boys basketball team get closer and closer to 2-AAA play that is on the horizon.
The Patriots ended the week with a 1-2 record with a loss to Canton Academy in the first district game, a win over East Rankin Academy and a loss to Hartfield Academy. All in all, it was a successful week despite the two losses.
“All three teams we played were very good teams. Going 1-2 on that week, is a little more valuable than going 3-0 against some teams from November,” Childs said. “East Rankin has beaten Kirk and Canton as well as Magnolia Heights. That was a really big win for us.
“Against Canton, we had a fourth quarter lead that we let slip away. We had late leads just couldn’t finish. Hartfield is number three in the state who has beaten Jackson Academy and Jackson Prep and haven’t lost a game in the MAIS. They’ll be in the Final 4 when it’s all said and done.
The Patriots (11-5) got off to a slow start against the Panthers of Canton in the first game of the week but they would fight back. They trailed 14-5 after one quarter before coming back to close that deficit to 28-22 at the halftime break. After the third quarter, they had trimmed it to 39-36 and made it a brand new game.
The Patriots would eventually take the lead in the fourth quarter but Canton was able to pull out a 59-52 win to get the upper hand in the division.
WA shot 41 percent in the game and forced 20 turnovers, but their own turnovers doomed them as CA scored 24 points off of the Patriots’ turnovers. Nash Vanlandingham scored 12 points on 6-of-12 shooting in the game with 10 rebounds. Blake Peterson also had 12 points.
The defense from WA hit another level in their next game with East Rankin when they got a key 40-33 victory. They allowed 10 points in just one quarter as they pulled off the win and held ERA to 27 percent shooting and 3-of-21 from 3-point range.
Peterson was the only player in double figures with 16 points on 8-of-12 shooting and he added nine rebounds and four blocked shots.
In the final game of the week against one of the state’s top teams in Hartfield, the Patriots couldn’t have had a much better first quarter as they led 18-17 following Collin Mills’ buzzer-beating shot. It was his 1,000th career point at WA.
Hartfield quickly took control of the game in the second quarter when they held WA to just three points and led 29-21 going to the halftime break. The lead swelled to 46-30 after three quarters and that was enough to put the Patriots away as they fell 59-40.
The Patriots gave up 48 points in the paint and were out-rebounded 48-30.
Mills finished with 14 points on 7-of-10.
The NW game will be a rematch from the 55-36 win the Patriots had earlier this month against the Warriors and a chance for WA to get some momentum before the new year when they hit 2-AAA play hard by traveling to Starkville Academy on Jan. 4.
Childs believes that they’ll be prepared because of the first part of the schedule that they’ve had.
“In years past, we would have crumbled in those games but we’re starting to rise to the occasion. We’ve really responded well to adversity this year,” Childs said. “I think we learned that we can compete and play with anyone in the MAIS when we come to play.”
