Ahead of the first MAIS 2-AAA games of the year for Winston Academy, coach Moe Reed wanted her team to get some added experience before the new year and they did just that at the Lamar School Tournament in Meridian last weekend.
The Lady Patriots would end up going 2-1 on their trip to Meridian with wins over Southern Academy and Enterprise and a loss to host Lamar School to push their record to 16-5.
In game one of the tournament, WA had 11 points from Madelyn Bright and seven total players got into the scoring column as they poured it on Southern Academy 51-25 for the win. Things got rocky against Lamar School in game two, however, as a short-handed Lady Patriots team lost 60-27.
Reed said that she still believes that her team got something from the game even with the blowout loss.
“We got smoked by Lamar but we only had seven players and didn’t play well,” Reed said. “They shot the ball really well and we couldn’t make anything and couldn’t defend. They’re a top five team.”
In the final game of the tournament, WA would have to work against Enterprise to secure a victory.
Lilly Sisson and Bailey Wood followed up scoring 24 of the team’s 27 points against Lamar by putting up 21 and 17 points respectively as they fought to a 46-40 win.
“We had a really close game against Enterprise and they’re a really solid team,” Reed said. “We got down early and came back and I think we played with some pride. We were carrying over the loss from Lamar in the first quarter but we stepped it up.”
The victory caps off what was an extremely successful non-conference slate to end 2018. Reed said that now that the calendar is turning, a new season begins with district play on the way.
The Lady Patriots begin things with a road trip to rival Starkville Academy on Friday as they hope to start the new year 1-0 and get off on the right foot in district play.
“The seniors are carrying us as they are expected to carry us. I’m pleased with where we are and I’m really thankful that we were able to get three games in before district play. We got what we needed to get out of the tournament,” Reed said.
“All of these games we’ve played up until now don’t really matter. They’ve given us confidence and I’ve seen players getting better. I’m looking forward to a really good district schedule. We can compete with anybody on any given night.”
BOYS
The WA boys participated in a game in Columbus last week and won 61-21 over Pickens Academy to go to 13-6 on the season.
“We played our most complete game of the year, especially on the defensive side,” head coach Justin Childs said. “We knew everything they did flowed through one player and our entire defense did a great job getting the ball out of his hands and forcing others to take their shot.”
That one player was Seth Peeks who the Patriots held to a season-low four points on 2-of-9 shooting.
For the Patriots, they came out with a 19-4 start in the game in the opening quarter and allowed just 10 points in the first half as they cruised to a 35-10 lead. That was all they needed to get the easy win.
Pickens shot just 18 percent from the field and missed all 13 of their 3-point attempts and the Patriots pulled down 47 rebounds in the victory and blocked seven shots.
Collin Mills, fresh off of hitting the 1,000-point mark for his career two weeks ago, had 17 points on an efficient 8-of-11 shooting. Noah Dempsey had 15 points, five assists and four steals and Nash Vanlandingham dominated the rebounding with 17 boards to go along with his nine points.
Blake Peterson finished with nine rebounds, eight points and four blocked shots.
The Patriots will head to Starkville on Friday to try to take down the Volunteers and Childs has confidence in how his team is playing at the moment.
“I was really proud of the way our guys guarded and played defense on Friday,” Childs said. “if we can play with that much determination and grit in January, we can win a lot of these tough games we have ahead of us.”
