Akeem Ashford picked up a loose ball and hit a jumper from the right wing, just inside the three-point line, to give Choctaw County a 61-60 victory over Aberdeen. With the win, the Chargers will be the third seed in the Region 5-3A tournament at Aberdeen.
Choctaw County battled back after falling behind 14-7 after one quarter. “We kind of got off to a slow start,” said coach Gary Beals. “They (Aberdeen) came out and played a zone. We didn’t respond very well. We came back and played very well in the third quarter.”
The Chargers cut the deficit to 28-23 at the half, then outscored Aberdeen 22-16 in the third quarter to take a 45-44 lead.
Choctaw County was led by Kendall Coleman who hit four 3-pointers, scored 23 points and had seven assists. Zavier Coleman made four of seven 3-point shots and scored 13 points. Jacquette Young had a game-high 26 points for Aberdeen on 10 of 14 shooting.
Choctaw County will play Hatley, the sixth seed in the six-team tournament, in the 5-3A opening round Tuesday, Feb. 13. If the Chargers win, they will face second seed Nettleton in the semifinals February 15. Houston is the top seed.
In regular season games earlier this season, Choctaw County defeated Hatley 67-45, but lost to Nettleton 72-46.
Choctaw County is the defending boys and girls tournament champion.
In two other games last week, the Chargers defeated East Webster 60-57 in overtime and lost to Kosciusko 42-36.
Freshman Clarke Crowley came off the bench for Choctaw County after five players, including four starters, had fouled out to lead the Chargers to the win over East Webster. He hit a big basket in overtime to tie the game and took over the ball handling duties after starting guards Kendall Coleman and Zavier Coleman fouled out.
“He did a great job for us,” Beals said. “We had a chance to win it earlier in regulation but we missed free throws.”
Zavier Coleman led the Chargers with 12 points. Logan Murphy was 3 of 3 from the floor and 4 of 5 from the line for 10 points. Keevon Patterson had 20 points, 13 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 assists for East Webster.
Choctaw County fell behind Kosciusko 18-6 after the first quarter and never caught up. Kosciusko might have helped Choctaw County make a game of it in the second half. After taking a 33-20 halftime lead, Kosciusko held the ball for most to the third quarter.
“They delayed it to try to get us out of the zone,” Beals said. But the result was that Choctaw County scored the only two points of the third quarter, then outscored the Whippets 14-9 in the final period.
“We had chances to cut it to one or two in the final quarter. We never did.”
GIRLS
The Lady Chargers' results last week were the reverse of the boys team, with a 56-42 win against Kosciusko and losses to East Webster 42-35 and Aberdeen 53-48.
“We played our best team basketball against Kosciusko,” said coach Mandy Jewell.
Jabria Esters had a career high 22 points for Choctaw County and La’Genesis Johnson had 15. “Teams are starting to double Gen (Johnson), which we knew would happen,” Jewell said. “She is such a versatile player. We moved her outside to open up the middle and for her to shoot the three or attack the basket.”
Diamond Rayford had 16 points for Kosciusko.
East Webster outscored Choctaw County 12-5 in the final quarter for a 42-35 win. Johnson had a game high 19 points. The result was a reversal of the Lady Chargers’ 47-45 victory when the teams met nine days earlier at the Mid-Mississippi Challenge hosted by Choctaw County.
Against Aberdeen, Jewell said “a few key things we lacked costs us in the end. One was our transition defense. We didn’t get back and they got a lot of easy layups by beating us down the floor. We also had too many turnovers.
“Gen led scoring with 20 and Jabria with 15. We shouldn’t get beat with two high scorers like that.”
As the fifth seed, the Lady Chargers will also play Hatley in the opening round February 13. The girls game begins at 4 p.m., followed by the boys game.
Choctaw County girls won an earlier matchup with Hatley 37-27.
The Chargers and Lady Chargers will wind up the regular schedule at home against Eupora Thursday for Senior Night. Each team has three seniors who will be honored between games – Murphy, Ashford and Taiwan Cook for the Chargers, Amelia Pratt, Jiesha Miller and Chaluv Harris for the Lady Chargers.
Tip off for the girls game is 6 p.m.
