On the third day of the Holiday Classic, the North Pike Jaguars gave the McComb Tigers all they could handle.
North Pike pressured the Tigers into early mistakes before McComb settled down and came back in the second half to win 78-70.
North Pike’s Albert Matthews scored 15 first-half points to pace the Jaguars’ 21-10 lead after one quarter and 41-31 lead at the half.
In the second half, it was the extra looks the Tigers got themselves on the offensive boards that closed the gap.
Derrick Harris grabbed 17 rebounds and Mitchell Thompson added 12 of his own to keep the ball on the Tigers’ end of the court.
McComb cut the halftime lead to five with 5:09 left in the third, and with four minutes left, the Tigers made their run to take back the lead.
Thompson put back a miss, tipped in a miss on the next possession and threw another one down to make it 46-45 with 3:07 left.
The next time down the floor Harris hit his third 3-pointer of the night to take a 48-46 lead.
Matthews tied it with two free throws at 50-all, but North Pike would only be tied once more and wouldn’t hold a lead again.
The Tigers put themselves in trouble in the fourth quarter. McComb started the fourth with six players on the court. Phillip McCray made one of the technical free throws, but McComb didn’t get up more than two before head coach Hilton Harrell was whistled for a technical after a traveling call on Bobby Felder.
McCray sank both those free throws before Ridgeland Smith laid in a bucket to tie the game at 59-all.
McComb added to its lead in the final three minutes, stretching it to as many as nine. Anthony Daniels scored seven points in the final three minutes to keep McComb ahead of the Jaguars.
Harris tried to shoot out of his slump early, only hitting two of his first 11 shots behind the arc. He finished by hitting three of his last four to end with 15 points. Thompson chipped in 19 points in the paint. Daniels finished with 15 points off the bench.
Matthews led North Pike with 23 points and six rebounds before fouling out with under a minute left in the game. McCray tallied 19 points, including 7-of-8 from the charity stripe. Mahmud Khased finished with 16 points.
McComb finished hosting their Holiday Classic with a 3-0 record, while North Pike and Amite County finished with 2-1 records, their only losses coming at the hands of McComb.
Amite County 54, Lawrence County 51
Justin Patterson scored 25 points and Stephon Patterson added 12 to keep the Trojans out front of the Lawrence County Cougars on Saturday.
Both Pattersons kept Amite County out front of Mendenhall with a lead that never pulled above five.
Mendenhall stole an inbound pass with 10 seconds left and down three, but the Tigers weren’t able to capitalize on the turnover as Mendenhall missed the potential tying 3-pointer with two seconds left.
McComb 77, North Pike 51
McComb’s girls also finished the Classic 3-0 with their win over North Pike.
McComb started the game on a 15-0 run led by Portia Craft, who hit a 3-pointer in the corner and converted two steals into layups to run the lead up early. McComb led 42-19 at halftime.
McComb was led by Craft and Alisha Rayborn, who both finished with 16 points. April Johnson tallied 14 points and Shanequia Bibbs added 10 off the bench.
North Pike had 20 points from Brittany Patterson and 18 points from U’leisha Smith.
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In other games on Saturday, the Mendenhall girls beat Amite County 49-32. Lawrence County’s boys beat Tylertown 45-42, and the Cougars returned the favor in the boys game by beating the Chiefs 48-45.
