Next man up.
That’s the mind-set the Columbus High School basketball team has used all season. It worked again in an elimination game Tuesday night, as Deontae Jones and Robert Irby each had 11 points to lead Columbus to a 57-44 victory against Grenada in the Class 6A, Region 2 tournament at Columbus High.
The victory pushed Columbus (13-12) into the title game against Tupelo, which defeated South Panola in an earlier game Tuesday, at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The Columbus High girls will take on Tupelo at 6 p.m. Friday in the other championship game.
Columbus rolled to a 61-21 victory against Grenada, while Tupelo edged South Panola on Tuesday.
Brandon Porter had eight points and J.J. Swanigan had seven points to lead a balanced attack for the Falcons that had nine players score.
Columbus High coach Sammy Smith said his team will need a similar effort Friday night if it wants to have a chance to earn its first win against Tupelo in three tries this season.
“We’re persevering,” Smith said. “I think the guys have stayed the course. We won one more ballgame. The kids did a good job of staying disciplined.”
Columbus broke open a close game in the first quarter with an 11-4 spurt that stretched into the second quarter. The burst gave Columbus a 19-9 lead, but Grenada scored the next six points to steal the momentum. That was as close as it got, though, as the Falcons attacked the offensive boards and used a putback by Porter and a jumper by Tim Lewis to take a 29-17 halftime lead.
Columbus stretched the lead to 15 in the third quarter and to 18 in the fourth quarter before cruising home.
The Columbus girls also received a balanced scoring attack, as Kiandria Patterson had 16 points, Maggie Proffitt had 13, and Kierra Erby added eight. Kameron Corrothers and Laterrica Jefferson added seven apiece as the Lady Falcons (23-2) led 14-7 after one quarter. Columbus pushed the margin to 29 by the end of the third quarter and went deep into its bench to earn its third win against Grenada this season.
“We got off to a slow start and had some foul trouble that prevented us from pressing a lot like we wanted to,” Columbus coach Yvonne Hairston said. “Our younger girls came in and held that thing together so we could get back together after halftime.”
n West Point 56, New Hope 52 (G): At Oxford, Wilma Davis had a game-high 17 points Tuesday night to lead the Lady Green Wave into the Class 5A, Region 2 title game against Oxford on Friday night.
Adrianna Billups added 14 points, Taylor McCrary had 12, and Keisha Walker had 10 to help West Point beat New Hope for the second time in three meetings this season.
“Everything fell into place,” West Point coach Murray Woody said. “I have preached to the girls about playing hard and playing together, and for the last three games we have played solid basketball and some of the best basketball of the season. We sucked it up, we kept fighting, and we kept working.”
Jasmine Gardner had 13 points and D.J. Sanders had 10 for New Hope, which saw its season end at 21-6. Last season, New Hope won six games.
“We just had an off night,” New Hope coach Laura Lee Holman said. “We weren’t able to come up with anything defensively to help get us some easy baskets. We didn’t play hard enough and we didn’t box out, and those were things that it was going to take to beat West Point.”
In the boys game, West Point beat New Hope 74-54. Lawrence Brown had 25 points and Jason Tate added 11 for the Trojans. New Hope coach Drew McBrayer said his team couldn’t overcome 25-30 turnovers and rally after the Green Wave used an 8-0 run in the third quarter to build a double-digit lead.
n In other district tournament action Tuesday night, Gavin Ware had 16 points and Tory Rice added 11 to lead the Starkville High boys to a 73-35 victory against Neshoba Central in Philadelphia. Starkville played without senior guard Jacolby Mobley (flu).
The Kosciusko boys beat Caledonia 81-61 in the Class 4A, District 4 tournament at Noxubee County. In girls action, Noxubee County beat Caledonia 46-37.
In Class 2A, the East Webster boys beat Pisgah 52-27 and the East Webster girls defeated Ackerman 64-39.
In Class 1A, Brenesha Brownlee had 26 points and Jaslyne Bedford added 22 to lead the West Oktibbeha girls to a 70-37 victory against Smithville. West Oktibbeha will play host to Tremont on Thursday.
In private school action, the Heritage Academy boys defeated Starkville Academy 57-42.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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