WEST POINT — Things got too close for comfort for the West Point boys basketball team in the middle of the third quarter as a 20-point lead over Okolona was cut down to just eight points.
What originally started as a track meet in favor of the Green Wave, with them leading 25-7 after the first quarter, turned into a game of mistakes, turnovers and easy baskets for the Chieftains.
Through that Okolona run, however, West Point was still able to get layups off broken defensive possessions, fast-break opportunities and odd-man numbers on the offensive side of the floor to keep the lead intact.
West Point did just enough to take a 66-55 lead into the fourth, and from there, the track meet returned as the Green Wave overwhelmed the Chieftains, winning 93-65 on Tuesday night.
“It was good for us, but it was also a negative for us to give up a lead like that,” West Point head coach Marquis Burnett said. “Hopefully being in a tight battle like that, being able to go back and do what we did will help us in the long run.”
The Green Wave (4-1) had a number of fantastic performances in the win, beginning with Tabuis Blanchard, who led with 24 points, half of them coming in the second half where he was able to dominate down low with a number of layups.
If it works, keep going to it, and that’s exactly what West Point did when looking at its offensive success on the night.
That doesn’t just include layups either as the Green Wave electrified a packed house with a number of dunks, a few of which came from Tylan Wicks, who finished with 13 points in the win.
“We started pushing the ball in transition more, and we have to keep doing that,” Wicks said. “That includes sharing the ball and keeping our energy up.”
Energy was an easy thing to come by with such a lively and wild atmosphere, but even when it looked like Okolona was going to keep itself in the game, West Point prevented that.
A few quick layups turned a single-digit deficit into double-digits and it just kept building from there.
What was just a 66-55 lead became an 80-59 lead with about three minutes left in the fourth quarter as the offensive outburst from the Green Wave forced an Okolona timeout.
“I think we had so many guys in foul trouble in the first half that they lost their defensive intensity,” Burnett said. “I think being up so much made them complacent, but they did a good job in the second half at increasing that intensity, playing tough-nosed defense.”
West Point will need to keep up that defensive intensity over the weekend, taking on Houston in the Chickasaw Challenge on Friday.
West Point girls 62, Okolona 19
The West Point girls team got things going quickly Tuesday, and the game turned into a blowout early on, or at least by the end of the first half.
A 17-5 first quarter gave way to a 31-13 halftime lead for the Green Wave (3-3), who had three players with at least eight points and five with at least four points, showing how well the ball was being dispersed.
Things continued to roll in dominant fashion for West Point in the second half, holding Okolona to just six points overall as the Green Wave had a plus-23 point differential in the final 16 minutes of play.
“We’re focused on execution no matter who we play,” West Point head coach Montez Calvert said. “It’s going to come down to times where we need to execute and we need to be prepared to execute on offense and execute on defense.”
Dukiaha Jones not only led West Point in scoring on the night but was one of two Green Wave players to finish in double figures in scoring, posting 16 points in the win.
That point total was just three points short of Okolona’s entire points scored in the game.
Taylor Fair ended up being the other double-digit scorer, scoring 10 points.
These games are great tune-up games for some of the more competitive opponents that West Point will face this season, and with Hartfield Academy coming up this weekend, they’ll need to be ready.
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