SALTILLO — New Hope High School boys basketball coach Drew McBrayer surveyed his scorebook before reviewing his team’s latest performance Friday night.
“It was the 32 to 10 in free throws,” McBrayer said. “It is really hard to overcome that. We battled hard. We competed. We played well. It is just hard to beat a really good team at their place when it’s 32 to 10.”
In a much anticipated showdown for the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A, Region 2 lead, New Hope and Saltillo did not disappoint.
Saltillo, ranked fifth in the state by Clarion-Ledger in Class 5A, rode the heavy advantage at the free-throw line and a rowdy student section to a 73-63 victory.
With the win, Saltillo improved to 21-3 overall and 3-1 in region play. The Tigers are 11-0 at home this season. New Hope fell to 16-6 and 3-1. Each team has two region games remaining and sit tied atop the standings. New Hope would earn the tie-breaker based on a one-point margin-of-victory advantage. New Hope won the earlier meeting, 82-71 in Lowndes County.
Postgame, New Hope players and coaches were trying to asses how a loss could even be possible after recording 18 steals and forcing 27 turnovers.
“It’s like coach just told us, sometimes you can play very well and be messed over in the end,” New Hope sophomore guard Terryonte Thomas said. “We will learn from this experience and move on to the next game.”
New Hope can still secure the top seed in the region tournament by beating West Point at home Tuesday and Oxford on the road Friday. The region tournament begins Feb. 17 at West Point.
“We know what we are capable of doing and we showed it out here on the court tonight,” Thomas said. “We gave ourselves a chance after being down early. I think that shows the character we have on this team.”
In a fast-paced offensive-oriented first half, Saltillo led 40-32 at the intermission. The Tigers grabbed that lead in large part by reeling off an 8-0 run in the first quarter. Junior C.J. Dean provided a big spark by canning a pair of 3-point baskets off the bench.
New Hope forced seven steals in the opening quarter, including three by Thomas in a space of 27 seconds. Still, the Trojans were a little careless on their end, too, with a couple of fast-break attempts going awry with errant passes.
Saltillo held a 45-33 lead after a 3-point play by Jawon Smith with one minute gone by in the third quarter.
The Trojans then dug deep and put together a 15-4 run to climb back into the contest. Shemar Johnson again delivered a pair of monster dunks to highlight the run. Johnson scored seven of his game-high 23 points to cap the run, brining the Trojans back within 49-48 with 12 seconds left in the third quarter.
New Hope then grabbed its final lead at 51-50 on a Jaylon Bardley trey with 7:20 left. The Trojans would then be called for seven fouls over the next three minutes, including a pair of charge calls.
“The run really took a lot of us,” Thomas said. “We were fighting uphill most of the night and took so much energy to get back in the game. We are playing full-court pressure defense to get some turnovers and you really couldn’t do that because if you breathed, it was a foul. We got back in the game back quickly but couldn’t stay ahead because we couldn’t play the type of defense we needed to play.”
McBrayer also had to alter his substitution pattern as foul trouble mounted.
A putback by Johnson brought New Hope within 57-54 with 5:45 left. However, the Trojans could get no closer and the Tigers already were well aware of where the free throw line was located.
Johnson paced New Hope with 23 points. Thomas had 18 points, 10 rebounds and eight steals. Bardley had 13 points and six thefts.
“This is such a difficult environment and we will learn from it,” McBrayer said. “One thing I know is we won’t play another game in this gym here this year.”
Saltillo received 17 points from Jason Smith and 13 points from Dean.
n Saltillo girls 61, New Hope 56: In the opener, the Lady Trojans erased a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit before falling in overtime.
New Hope forced the extra period by hitting two 3-point baskets in the final 16.4 seconds of regulation. The first was by Janae Topps, while the other came from about 35 feet out was by Alex Melton.
“I really thought we were going to get one there,” New Hope coach Laura Lee Holman said. “The team that hits the shot at the end of regulation usually carries all the momentum into the overtime. It’s a credit to the girls for continuing to battle. It also shows that we need to take another step to learn how to win these types of games.”
New Hope (3-20, 0-4 region) has now played four overtime games this season. The Lady Trojans have been painfully close to victory in three of their four region losses.
It did not appear that would be the case Friday night when Saltillo built a 41-24 lead with 6:15 left in the fourth quarter. Still, New Hope kept plugging away.
New Hope hit four 3-point baskets in the quarter, including treys by Melton and Alaysha Jennings to get the run started.
“We are not a good 3-point shooting team,” Holman said. “You hit a couple and we fell in love with it too much. We called a couple of timeouts there once it was a one-possession game again and talked about the importance of getting the ball inside and doing what we do best. It is all part of the learning curve. You can understand the excitement when you were down that much and got back in the game.”
Melton scored on a putback to give her team its only lead of the game at 55-53 with 2:15 left in the overtime. The Lady Tigers (12-6, 2-2) responded with a steal and fast-break layup to move ahead for good two possessions later.
New Hope, which missed its first 10 free throws and finished 3 of 16 at the line for the contest, received 14 points from Melton, 12 points from Lanoria Abrams and 10 points from Jennings.
“We are getting close,” Holman said. “I think this team can put it together in the district tournament and find a way to win a game. It would mean a lot for next year to be able to get into the playoffs this season.”
Follow Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.