It was a week full of opportunity for the WInston Academy Lady Patriots and they competed at a high level in two huge MAIS 2-AAA ball games at home.
The Lady Patriots hosted two of their biggest rivals in Louisville beginning on Tuesday with Starkville Academy and finishing up against Leake Academy on Friday. They split the two ball games as they finished off a season sweep against the Lady Volunteers and fought valiantly in a defeat against the mighty Lady Rebels.
Tuesday’s game felt like deja’vu for the Lady Pats who had battled SA on the road earlier in the month and came away with a three-point victory as Bailey Wood defended a Lillee Alpe 3-point shot on the final possession to win the game.
It played out the exact same way at home.
In a back and forth affair that four quarters couldn’t decide, Wood came up with yet another big block of Alpe on the final possession in overtime leading WA to a 43-40 final. It was a game decided by two team’s defenses and fitting that the final play would be a big defensive stop.
Head coach Moe Reed was proud of her whole team but especially liked the effort from Deshia Jones off the bench as she hit two big shots late in the ball game to help the team to victory.
“A lot of credit to (Starkville Academy). They really took our strength away. I thought Deshia really came in and gave us a spark off the bench that I’ve been looking for a long time,” Reed said. “I thought Lilly was really active on the boards as she usually is. We just ground it out.”
WA led 16-13 at the halftime in a game that was about as nip and tuck as it could be. That continued into the third quarter as WA was clinging to a 21-20 lead and SA found some momentum in the fourth with a 25-21 lead in the final 5 minutes.
The Lady Pats came storming back with a 10-3 run of their own grabbing the three-point lead with 3 minutes left. After regulation things continued to go back and forth before the Lady Pats grabbed a three-point lead thanks to buckets by Jones. That set the stage for Wood’s blocked shots with 7 seconds left to preserve the win.
Lilly Sisson scored 16 in the win.
After that big victory, WA had a chance to put itself in position to win the division with a matchup with the state’s top team, Leake. The Patriots had played them respectable in the first game of the season and gave them one of their closest games of the year on Friday before falling short in a 50-37 game. Leake improved to an amazing 27-1 and is now 8-0 in district play.
The Lady Pats will play the final district game of the season on Tuesday at Heritage Academy and finish out the regular season at Kirk Academy. A win on Tuesday would guarantee a No. 2 seed in the district tournament next week at Leake.
BOYS
While the girls celebrated their three very important seniors on Friday, the boys had an even larger group that has helped change the culture at WA and become winners once again.
Eight seniors played their final game at home against Leake Academy on Friday in a 76-63 loss and they dropped a 46-44 game to Starkville Academy earlier in the week to fall to 15-13 and 1-6 in district play.
The Vols were able to avenge their earlier loss in the season to Winston with the two-point win early in the week as the Patriots weren’t able to get a shot off on the final possession down by two points.
“Starkville’s zone really gave us a wrinkle early on to have to overcome after playing us man the first game,” head coach Justin Childs said. “They slowed the game down and made us play their pace and it worked out for them, because we didn’t’ dictate the tempo. We will see them again at district tournament and I think we will all be ready.”
It was a solid start for the first two quarters by WA as they led 23-20 at halftime and they had a 28-24 lead in the third quarter when the wheels began to fall off. SA went on a 14-0 run and would jump out to a 36-29 advantage as the Patriots were searching to stop the bleeding.
The lead went up to 10 at 44-24 with 5 minutes left in the game before WA began to claw back in it and they cut it to 44-43 after Chandler Robertson hit a 3-pointer with 1:19 left in the game. They couldn’t get closer than that.
Turnovers were an issue for the Patriots as they had 22 in the game and SA scored 19 points off of them while WA had five points on 14 turnovers by the Vols.
Collin Mills was the leading scorer for WA with his 13 points, Blake Peterson had 14 rebounds and eight points.
Leake shot 49 percent from the field to knock off the Pats on senior night. WA made 9-of-23 from 3-point range but that wasn’t enough as the Rebels pulled off the win.
Robertson and Noah Dempsey each finished with 14 points on senior night as Hoyt Hendrix and Mills had 12 points each themselves in their final games at home.
“I’m so proud of our seniors and the heart and determination they played with, especially Chandler Robertson and Hoyt Hendrix. Those two stepped up and played lights out,” Childs said. “I love these eight seniors more than they could ever know and I’m so proud of what they have accomplished. We came up short in the end but I couldn’t be more proud of these guys.”
