Home court advantage wasn’t enough for South Pike to overcome Columbia’s key shots in a 60-59 double overtime loss as the Eagles played their first home district game of the season Friday night.
South Pike head coach Joe Taylor said energy and turnovers made the difference.
“Our bench didn’t have any energy,” he said, noting that the starting players had a more solid effort. “We couldn’t figure out what was going on, so that’s why we primarily stuck to those five or six guys, and they played a heck of a ball game.
“We showed some improvement in free throws and we’re finishing at the basket a little better but we still need to work on that. Other than that, that first group did a real good job.”
South Pike led by as many as 9 points in the first quarter but let the Wildcats climb back to hit a game-tying 3-pointer to make it 22-22.
Center TarVorious Williams added 9 first-half points and finished with 20, going 6 of 8 from the free throw line.
The Eagles had a chance to win in regulation but missed a key free throw with less than 10 seconds remaining, and Columbia scored to send the game into overtime, 46-46.
South Pike started the first overtime strong but again allowed a Columbia 3-pointer to tie the game at 51.
The Wildcats started strong in the second overtime and forced key turnovers before holding on for the win.
“We wanted to keep pressing,” Taylor said. “And we wanted to make sure we took the legs away from the shooter. I think it helped out some but they still knocked down another one going into the second overtime.”
Guard Chris Lewis led the Eagles with 23 points. He was eight of 10 from the free throw line.
As a team, South Pike was 20 of 25 from the free throw line. Columbia was five of 11.
Guard Freddrick Peters led Columbia with 25 points.
“We talked about as a group fixing those mistakes so they aren’t carried over to the next game,” Taylor said. “The guys themselves named those mistakes, and I told them since you know the mistakes you made, then you know what you need to work on.”
South Pike continues district play Tuesday, when the Eagles host Lawrence County (11-7) at 7:30 p.m.
South Pike girls
rout Columbia 71-45
The South Pike Lady Eagles won their second district game Friday against visiting Columbia, 71-45.
Junior guard/forward Myneka Frazier finished with 9 points and was a force on the defensive side of the ball.
“Myneka’s been picking it up,” said head coach Cavadas Nunnery. “She’s one of our most versatile players and we ask her to do a lot of things from pressing, trapping the basketball, trying to score, passing and shooting. We’ve been staying on her to take more shots.”
South Pike’s duo of senior Kaletron Baker and sophomore Tamia Mitchell finished with 6 and 10 points, respectively.
“Kaletron and Tamia are two point guards that really pressure the ball,” said Nunnery. “They get our offense going, they hustle and they are really the key to our defense.”
Nunnery said South Pike got off to a slow start in the first half, “but I think we were up around 10 at halftime.”
“We went in the locker room for the halftime and talked about the defense with keeping the ball in front of us and keeping their bigs off the board and getting easy points,” he said.
The Eagles were able to get all players on the scoring chart. Nakaylis Washington led with 14 points, Moriah Hurst added 11, and Ladereka McNeil added 6.
“You’ve got to have a bench to win at this level,” Nunnery said.
Shanterria Varnado and Alexandria Jackson each had 3 points, while Diedre Johnson, Destiny Gordon, and Shauna Ross all added 2.
The Lady Eagles travel to Gulfport Monday to take on Harrison Central (18-3) in the Gulfport Martin Luther King Classic. Tipoff is at 2 p.m. Tuesday’s tipoff for the Lady Eagles home contest against (5-5) Lawrence County is at 6 p.m.
