Slowly but surely, the Louisville Wildcats are beginning to get their feet underneath them on the basketball court after several football players had an extended season on the gridiron.
After losing the first two games of the year to Kemper County, the Wildcats came back with a blowout win of McAdams and were back in action last Friday night at Noxubee. Four players scored in double figures and led the Wildcats to a 65-57 win over its rival to move to 2-2 on the year.
“That first game against Kemper I didn’t have any football guys. The second game was really close and that was because my football guys were fresh out so they weren’t in basketball shape,” head coach Kylan Tippett said. “The biggest difference the last two weeks is the conditioning. We’ve been getting their legs back under them and they’re now used to running up and down the floor and their hand and eye coordination.”
In the win over Noxubee, LHS shot 45 percent and hit 9-of-22 shots from 3-point land. The big win for the Wildcats was on the boards as they out-rebounded the Tigers 36-24 in the win which was critical as Noxubee hit 64 percent of its shots.
Vasedrick Culberson had 18 points in the victory to lead the way while Drea Shumaker added 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting and six steals. Clayton Murry and Tyrell Thames had 13 points a piece. The shooting part of things is something that Tippett believes is really coming along quickly for the Wildcats now that the players are in the gym regularly.
“We knocked down some shots that we missed in the first few games. We had a week off since the last game and they were back on track,” Tippett said.
The Wildcats went up against Choctaw County on Tuesday night in a game that was played after press time. That was one that Tippett felt was going to be a good challenge for his team as the Chargers are a similar style with a lot of football players on the team that are going through the same situations as his squad.
It also has become somewhat of a rivalry game for the Wildcats on the friendly side of things.
“I’m expecting a tough, physical game from them. It’s always an interesting game since we’re close together and a lot of those guys are related,” Tippett remarked of the Chargers. “It’s always a battle.”
After that game, the Wildcats play Yazoo County at the McAdams Tournament on Saturday at 5:45 p.m.
GIRLS
It was a .500 week for the Lady Wildcats as they knocked off Noxubee County in the first game of the week and then had a tough loss to follow.
Head coach Fred Morris thought his team let one slip away at the end of the week against one of the state’s best programs at Harrison Central.
Despite a two-class differential between Louisville’s Class 4A standing and Harrison Central’s Class 6A, the Lady Wildcats had every opportunity to spring an upset in the Coaches vs. Cancer Girls Shootout at Pearl. LHS led the game by 18 points in the second half but couldn’t hold the lead as the Red Rebels came back and won the game 53-52.
It was a heartbreaking loss that many could look to as a moral victory, but Morris isn’t interested in those.
“We didn’t play with any poise and we failed to execute,” Morris said. “That’s something that we’ve got to correct moving down the stretch.”
Next up for the Lady Wildcats (5-2) is Choctaw County at home on Tuesday and Yazoo County on Saturday. The Lady Chargers have one of the top players in Mississippi in the post in Dandy Dozen center La’Genesis Johnson.
“They go as La’Genesis Johnson goes. You’ve got to contain her on the blocks and she has a face-up game as well that has made her a well-rounded player,” Morris said. “Containing her is going to be key.”
