Three point baskets by Raquela Graham and Alaysia Weeks keyed a fourth quarter rally that enabled the Choctaw County girls basketball team to edge East Webster 47-45 at the Mid Mississippi Challenge.
The Lady Chargers trailed for most of the game before coming from behind in the final four minutes. “We didn’t give up and it paid off,” said coach Mandy Jewel. “We did a great job forcing them to turn the ball over and take bad shots.”
La’Genesis Johnson led the Lady Chargers with 17 points. Graham had 13.
Choctaw County lost it's other two games last week, 66-47 against Houston and 51-30 to Louisville.
“We played a great game and were only down three at the half,” Jewell said of the Houston game. “We started the third quarter with two fouls and got outscored 15-5. We couldn’t bounce back from the cheap fouls.”
Jewel said Louisville is “a great team with a lot of quickness. We played hard but still turned the ball over too much.” Louisville jumped out to a 31-13 halftime lead.
Johnson was the team’s high scorer in both games with 23 points against Houston and 17 in the Louisville game. Tyliah Alston had 10 points in the Houston game.
Aquana Brownlee scored 20 points for Houston.
BOYS
Choctaw County was defeated by Houston 59-23 and Louisville 64-49. The Chargers did not play in the Mid Mississippi Challenge that was hosted by Choctaw County.
The Chargers led Louisville 22-21 at the half, but were outscored 16-8 in the third quarter and 27-19 in the final period.
“We had too many turnovers at crucial times in the fourth quarter,” said coach Gary Beals. “We played hard but we didn’t protect the ball when they turned up the pressure. Our guards didn’t handle it well.”
Choctaw County shot 40.5 percent to 33.3 percent for Louisville and outrebounded the Cardinals 33-24, but turned the ball over 32 times.
Israel Whitmore and Kendall Coleman scored nine points each for Choctaw County. Clayton Maury led Louisville with 15 points.
Houston led the Chargers 20-7 after one quarter and steadily pulled away the rest of the game. “Houston is a good basketball club. They out-athleted us,” Beals said.
Logan Murphy led the Chargers with 11 points on 5 of 9 hooting and had 10 rebounds. Shemar Crawford, a sophomore averaging 21.4 points, scored 26 for Houston and had 12 rebounds and five steals.
The Chargers and Lady Chargers played Nettleton Tuesday, will be at home Friday against Hatley and on the road Monday at East Webster.
