Road to tournament title at home off to good start for East Webster

MABEN – ‘Twas three days after Christmas and all through the gym, the East Webster Wolverines eyed a tournament championship.

On day one of the East Webster Christmas Classic, the homestanding Lady Wolverines and Wolverine basketball teams squared off against Oak Hill Academy in prime time hoops action.

In girls action, it was a rough and tough down to the wire battle, but the Lady Wolverines eventually pulled off a 58-50 victory.

“I was proud of the way we executed offensively,” East Webster basketball coach Michael Seger said. “The big difference in the second half was free throws. Oak Hill was much better at the free-throw line and (today) with Starkville Academy, we expect another battle with quick shooting.”

East Webster held a 5-2 lead through the first two minutes of the first quarter with all the scoring coming from the quick shooting of Mari-Todd Brown.

With 4 minutes left in the opening period, East Webster went on an 8-3 run capped by a 3-point field goal by Brown, who seemed unstoppable from beyond the arc and added six more points from Alexis Bell to lead 19-6 with 1:30 left in the first quarter.

The Lady Wolverines were outscored by the Lady Raiders 3-2 the remainder of the quarter but continued to cruise leading 21-9.

In the second quarter, Oak Hill drew first blood on two free throws from Emily Allen, but East Webster answered

It wasn’t the type of first half that coach Gary Beals wanted to see out of his Chargers.

Choctaw County got down 28-10 at the break and could never quite recover.

Even though the Chargers made a good run in the second half and out-scored Baldwyn 35-25, it was not enough to dig out of the big first-half hole.

“We weren’t ready to play,” Beals said. “In the second half, we played. It’s just getting us in the gym. Not making excuses, but we weren’t mentally there and they are not a bad basketball club. They did some things and made us hustle. We weren’t used to the physicality.”

Choctaw County was impressive in a comeback attempt as Devonte Miller and Akeem Kirkland combined for 12 points to close the gap to 38-25. Kirkland had an explosive drive to the basket for a dunk during the run. Kirkland had 25 points in the game for the Chargers. “He can play,” Beals said of Kirkland. “He’s special. They were pushing and double teaming him.”

Miller also scored in double figures for Choctaw County with 10 points.

The Chargers moved into today’s consolation bracket of the East Webster Christmas Classic and take on Winston Academy at 11:15 a.m. with another 3-pointer from Brown giving the Lady Wolverines a 24-12 lead with 6 minutes left in the first half.

With 4 minutes left in the half, fouls and free throws were the only thing adding to the scoreboard for Oak Hill on a 5-2 run, which cut the East Webster lead to 26-17.

A 4-2 run throughout the first half saw the Lady Wolverines lead 30-19 at halftime.

Mari-Todd Brown led East Webster at the break with 11 points.

In the third quarter, Childress drained a 3 for Oak Hill followed by a bucket from Julia Bristow, which cut the Lady Wolverine lead to 33-27 with 6 minutes left in the quarter.

The lead was down to 35-30 a minute later after a 3-pointer from Allen of Oak Hill.

East Webster ended the period on a 13-6 run and led 48-36 heading to the final quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Lady Wolverines opened with a deep two-point bucket from Isha Davis followed on the other end with a 3 from Bristow and the East Webster lead was 50-39 with 5 minutes remaining.

Oak Hill cut the lead to six points, but Todd answered with a quick layup and the Lady Wolverines led 52-44 with 4 minutes left to play.

The remainder of play saw a run of 6-6 to conclude play and East Webster was victorious.

Brown led the Lady Wolverines with 21 points.

“I felt like we had chances to put Oak Hill away early (Thursday night) and unfortunately we weren’t able to capitalize early,” Brown said. “However, (today) we’re going to have to be better in order to beat Starkville Academy and if we continue to get better the rest of the year, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.”

The Lady Wolverines improved to 6-5 and play the Lady Vols today at 5:30 p.m. in second round action.

In the boys game, what started as a shootout ended in a blowout victory for the home standing Wolverines.

“I think we let Oak Hill get the tempo away from us in the first half,” Seger said. “(Today) we play a bigger and more athletic team, so our defensive approach has to be better and we’ll have to keep J.Z. George out of the lane more to be victorious.”

East Webster trailed the Raiders 3-0 after a long jumper from Nate Lamkin, but answered with a quick bucket from Isaac Patterson cutting the first quarter lead to 3-2 with 5 minutes remaining in the opening period.

A 5-2 run by the Wolverines capped by an Art Thompson 3-point field goal had them leading 7-5 with 3 minutes remaining in the opening frame.

East Webster ended the quarter on a 3-1 run and led 10-6 heading into the first half’s final minutes.

In the second quarter, Oak Hill opened with a 7-4 run capped by another 3-pointer from Lamkin to cut the lead to 14-13 with 6 minutes remaining in the first half.

The next 2 minutes saw a 10-2 East Webster run to bring the score to 24-15 and Thompson’s point total run up to 11.

Oak Hill ended the first half on a 5-4 run, but the Wolverines held on to the lead 28-20.

Thompson led the Wolverines in the first half with 12 points. “I just really hustled and tried to make plays for my team,” Thompson said. “We expect a tough battle (today) with J.Z. George with lots of speed and quick shooting, but we’re gonna have to be quicker and shut them down early in order to get a win.”

In the third quarter, the second half was scoreless until the 5:30 mark when East Webster was granted a 3-pointer from Charlie Brand making it a 31-20 Wolverine lead.

Another three, this one from Jacob Ginn answered an Oak Hill bucket to make it a 34-22 East Webster lead. A quick 4-0 run extended the Wolverine lead to 38-22 with 3:30 left in the period.

“The second half felt really good,” Ginn said. “However, in the first half we didn’t play well, but coach Seger got us fired up and we were able to come out on top (Thursday night) and we expect nothing but great competition (today).”

Throughout the remainder of the quarter, Brand and Ginn heated up combining for 22 points torching the nets and giving East Webster a 49-28 lead heading to the final minutes of play.

In the fourth quarter, Brand scored eight more points at rapid speed as the game started to be dominated by East Webster 57-28 with 5 minutes remaining.

“I came out flat in the first half (Thursday night), but the halftime speech from coach Seger really lit a fire under me,” Brand said. “(Today) we’ll have to be better than we were (Thursday)and I’ll have to play better myself in order for us to pull out another victory.”

East Webster ended the game on a 15-10 run. Thompson and Ginn each finished with 14 points and Brand with 16 points.

The Wolverines improved to 8-2 and play J.Z. George at 6:45 p.m. today in second round action.