It was a good and bad week for the Winston Academy basketball teams as the Patriots spilt their two ball games following a Thanksgiving layoff.
For the boys team, they swept Starkville Christian on the season as they hit the road last Tuesday and won 48-32. The first half defensively was the key to the game for the Patriots who surrendered just 12 points in the first two quarters.
With Starkville Christian keeping the Patriots from getting a whole lot of production done offensively to start the game, head coach Jordan Graham needed the intensity to be good on the defensive side.
“It was a nip and tuck game there at first. Starkville Christian played us a triangle and two and put two of their best defenders on our best shooters but we finally adjusted to it,” Graham said. “Evan Willis did a good job getting us going offensively. We made some good adjustments there and got a good
In the win, Johnson Wells had a double-double as he poured in 16 points and ripped down 13 rebounds. They also had double digits scoring from Willis who finished with 13 points and 12 points from Brylee Wall.
While Cage Palmer wasn’t needed to get the win in the Tuesday game, his absence due to the MAIS football All-Star game was a big factor in the next game for the Patriots. Winston was missing one of its best offensive players on the team and it showed in what would be a 61-16 rout by Pillow Academy.
“Defensively, they got us out of our comfort zone. We didn’t have Cage who was our best ball handler. We had a hard time getting the ball to the basket,” Graham said. “On offense, Pillow shot the ball extremely well. The score didn’t indicate it, but I thought that we did some good things. The game might have been out of reach, but I thought we did some things there at the end.”
Wall was the team-high scorer with just five points in the contest and his two free throws were the only points in a rough first quarter. WA scored no more than seven in a single quarter and made just three shots the entire game in defeat.
WA (1-6) will have to be much better this week as the road gets even tougher. They will play the first district game of the season on Tuesday at Heritage Academy. The opposing Patriots are the defending district, north state, state and overall champions from a year ago and return most of the starters from that team.
They’ll follow that up with a home game against Lamar School on Friday and a rematch with Pillow on the road Saturday. Graham is hoping for improvement this week.
“When you’re playing against great teams like Heritage, we’re implementing a game plan and just trying to execute,” Graham said. “The biggest thing I’m trying to get across to the guys is our we executing our game plan? Whatever we put in place, we need to execute it.”
GIRLS
The Lady Patriots ran into the same results last week as they avenged a season-opening loss to Starkville Christian but lost to the Lady Mustangs.
Against Starkville Christian, WA made easy work of the home team in a 54-35 win. Micha Carr was the leading scorer with 12 points.
Against Pillow, the tables turned as the Lady Patriots fell 52-22. It was a game that head coach Kelley Greer felt was much closer than the score suggested, but also one that she felt her team didn’t play well at all against a good team.
“It seems like we couldn’t get it together,” Greer said. “Pillow is a good team but we struggled. I do think we’re progressing in a lot of areas. We’re progressing fundamentally and in our shooting but have a ways to go in fundamental defense and confidence. We’ve got to do a better job defensively,
Hailey Bradford led the team with nine points in the loss against Pillow and she’ll be the target for Heritage Academy’s defense on Tuesday when the two Lady Patriot teams meet in the first district game.
It’s the first game that WA will play against former head coach Moe Reed who took the job in Columbus during the spring. Reed knows the WA roster as well as anyone and Greer expects there to be a good game plan.
“I know she’s probably going to take Hailey Bradford out of the equation. I’ve got some offense that I want to work that incorporates other players. She’ll know our weaknesses, but we’ve also progressed in a lot of those areas where we have been weak,” Greer said.
Like the boys, the Lady Patriots will also be playing Lamar School and Pillow this week following their Tuesday match up.
