Playing form behind is nothing new for West Point boys’ basketball coach Brad Cox and his team.
After shaking some early-season struggles, West Point erased deficits to knock off Saltillo and Oxford in its first two Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A, Regiono 2 contests.
The Green Wave trailed again, but for the third time pulled out a victory Saturday night. West Point over came a six-point deficit in the final two minutes to beat New Hope 60-57 to start region play a perfect 3-0.
“We’ve been in that spot before, so they’ve got the confidence,” Cox said. “They know not to quit and they kept playing hard. We were very fortunate.”
The Green Wave (10-10, 3-0 region) trailed the Trojans (11-8, 0-3) 54-48 with just over two minutes remaining. West Point got a pair of 3-pointers, one from Austin Crawley and the other from A.J. McFarland (team-high 17 points) to tie things at 54 with 40 seconds left.
McFarland and Crawley combined for three free throws in the final seconds to keep New Hope from coming back.
“I really felt like we were doing the right things, but we were missing the free throws or missing the guy down on the block,” Cox said. “We just weren’t finishing and they kept battling. We were lucky to make some outside shots and finish the game.”
All four of Crawley’s points came in the final minutes. Shawn Westbrook scored 16 and Cox said he kept them in the ballgame with 10 points in the first half. Kelly Martin scored 11.
New Hope coach Drew McBrayer saw his team lead for most of the game, including 48-43 heading to the final quarter. His team could never push the lead out enough, something that bothered McBrayer. The Trojans looked like they were on their way to a win and McBrayer decided to play it safe and run a stall type offense to run the clock.
New Hope turned it over three times in the offense leading to the comeback for West Point. After a 9-0 start, the Trojans have now lost eight of 10.
“With a team like that, you’ve got to be able to execute and we did not in the final two minutes,” McBrayer said.
New Hope jumped out to a 15-9 lead in the first quarter, but West Point scored the next five points to cut the lead to 15-14. Terrell Jennings made a basket to push the lead to 17-14 as the quarter expired.
The Trojans built a 27-20 lead midway through the second quarter, but the Green Wave went on a 5-0 run as Qua Brownlee knocked down a shot and Randell Johnson nailed a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 27-25. The Trojans got three free throws and the Green Wave got a bucket from McFarland in the final minutes of the first half. The Trojans went to locker room up three at 30-27.
Willie Ousley led New Hope with 16 points. Carlos Brooks scored 14 and Terrell Jennings 13.
The Green Wave are no strangers to adversity, as they started the season 0-8. Cox is proud of how his team has weathered the storm and stuck with the process.
“It talks about their character,” Cox said. “It would have been real easy to say, ‘Well, this year’s over, we’re going to quit practicing hard and we’re going to quit playing hard.’ But they didn’t. They kept showing up, they kept buying into what we were telling them. It’s just rolled over into the game.”
In the opener, the West Point girls beat New Hope 64-56 behind Tia McCrary’s 24 points.
The Lady Wave (15-5, 2-1) led 17-8 after the first quarter, but the Lady Trojans (5-11, 1-2) cut the lead to 31-25 at halftime after outscoring West Point 17-14 in the second quarter.
West Point held a slim 44-42 lead after three quarters, but outscored New Hope 20-14 in the final quarter to get the victory.
Jamia Hollings scored 13 points for West Point. Qiayon Bailey scored 12, while Amari Heard added 10.
New Hope got 15 points from Jada Jamison, 12 from Lanoria Abrams and 11 from Janae Topps.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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