McComb knew it would see plenty of 3-pointers coming into Tuesday’s district-opening tilt at home against Pearl.
Maybe the Tigers didn’t expect 32, but they knew what they were getting themselves into.
McComb held Pearl to 4 of 32 from beyond the arc and used a fourth-quarter push to hold on for a 61-49 win.
“They live and die by it,” McComb coach Hilton Harrell said. “We did a good job of matching up and causing some disruption in their shot. We limited them to one shot most of the time.”
When Pearl did miss, it was one-and-done. McComb (14-3) dominated the glass with a 38-17 rebound margin. It was an all-around effort from the Tigers and even the guards got involved despite a sizeable height differential.
Freshman Antonio Cowart plucked a game-high 12 rebounds from his guard position to go along with 14 points. Forward Shemar Williams pulled down nine rebounds and added six points.
“(Cowart) told me he was going to get five, but I said ‘Don’t even think about that. I want 10,’ ” Harrell said.
Cowart got McComb off to a fast start in the first quarter, connecting on his first four shots. Pearl raced out to an 11-3 lead but Cowart’s hot shooting aided a 10-0 run to end the quarter.
The Tigers shot a sizzling 8 of 16 from the field in the second quarter and took a 31-20 lead into halftime. Most of the steady play came from forward Stacey Mack, who couldn’t be controlled on the offense glass. Mack finished with 20 points on 8 of 9 shooting with eight rebounds.
“That’s something we’ve been stressing, to get in and get the offensive boards and they did a better job of that tonight,” Harrell said. “If we are going to make a run at this district, we are going to have to do that.”
Pearl burst out of the locker room with a 7-0 run to start the second half and slowly chipped away at McComb’s lead. The Pirates got to within three in the fourth quarter at 50-47, but a thunderous dunk by Mack helped energize the players and crowd.
A 3-pointer by Cowart with 1:45 made it 59-49 and put a dagger in Pearl’s comeback. Calvin Spain had a strong night for Pearl with 18 points and six rebounds. Tre Harvey added eight points and six rebounds.
The only hiccup McComb faced was a deadly full-court press from Pearl in the second half. Pearl forced 20 McComb turnovers in the game and the step up in pressure helped create several easy baskets.
“It was a matter of us getting to our set press offense. We turned the ball over a few times and we shouldn’t have,” Harrell said. “When we got in our real press offense, we could spread the court and get the ball down the court and get some easy layups.”
Harrell said he was pleased with the way McComb started out the district. The Tigers will play five more games in the next month to round Region 6-5A play. With only four teams, each win is highly coveted. Pearl entered the game with a pair of wins over district foes Brookhaven and Wingfield, meaning a win Tuesday could have put itself in the driver’s seat. Now, McComb has swung the momentum back in its favor.
“That just kind of showed what we thought we could do, especially with the rhythm we’ve been playing,” Harrell said.
