Culpepper's continued good play helps Lady Wolverines win again
ACKERMAN – Shanayshia Culpepper was surprised to be recognized as Player of the Game for the East Webster girls Saturday morning.
Her coach was not.
Culpepper scored 17 points and the Lady Wolverines defeated the Mcadams Lady Bulldogs 59-44 in the first game of the day at the Midmississippi Challenge.
After the game, Culpepper was presented with the Player of the Game award and East Webster head coach Jon Ginn said it was well-deserved.
“She's played well for us,” Ginn said. “She's scoring well inside, rebounding the ball and doing everything we need her to do down there.”
Culpepper exhibits a team-first attitude and said she couldn't have been a position to win the Player of the
Game award if it had not been for the Lady Wolverines around her.
She was happy East Webster did the things necessary, like rebounding, to pick up a win.
“We just want to work as a team and win games together,” Culpepper said. “We just want to play hard.”
The Lady Wolverines certainly did that to gain an early advantage against the Lady Bulldogs.
Meri-grace Gregg hit three 3-point field goals and East Webster took a 16-8 lead after the first quarter. It expanded the margin by one point at halftime to 31-22.
Ginn was happy to get a victory over a Mcadams' team with potential to be a difficult opponent.
“They are tough and have played some really tough competition,” Ginn said. “They have some good wins under their belt, so I thought that was a good win for our girls.”
ority for the opponent. She took on a good amount of attention from Tupelo Christian, but still managed to carry Choctaw County for most of the game and she finished with 24 points.
Raquela Graham also had a big night for the Lady Chargers and a strong second half as she scored 11 points. She was the most consistent player on the team from the foul line as she went 6-of-10 but she made six of her last seven.
The bright spot of the game was the Choctaw County defense. It held the Lady Eagles to their second-lowest point total of the season and 11 points under their season average. It appeared early in the game as if the Lady Chargers wouldn't allow a single basket against the visitors.
Tupelo Christian didn't score a point until the final minute of the first quarter and they trailed 9-1 after 8 minutes of action. It wasn't until the 4-minute mark in the second quarter that the first basket dropped for the Lady Eagles. Unfortunately for the Lady Chargers, they weren't getting much offense going either and it was the free throws that were the culprit as they began 1-of-12 from the line.
At halftime, Choctaw County only led 14-12 and Johnson had scored 12 of the points.
“We rely on Gen too much,” Jewell said. “These younger girls have got to learn to step up and attack the basket.”
The offense started to flow much better for both teams as the Lady Chargers began to get production outside of Johnson. They even pushed the lead out to seven points at the end of the third quarter at 29-22, but the Lady Eagles had the advantage in the final quarter.
Tupelo Christian came out on an 8-2 run in the first 2 minutes and then took the first lead since early in the third quarter with a basket at 4:29. Things got interesting with 20 seconds to go as the Lady Chargers had the ball down by four points. Johnson got fouled and a technical foul followed on a Lady Eagle giving Choctaw County four free throws and the basketball.
After struggling for most of the game at the line, Johnson hit the first three but missed the final one to close the lead to 41-40. The Lady Chargers had two chances to win the game with shots that wouldn't go and they dropped a heartbreaking decision.
“We've got to finish strong,” Johnson said. “We started strong, but we didn't finish strong. We got tired and that hurt us in the end. We also missed too many free throws.”
Choctaw County (8-9) hosts area foe East Webster on Tuesday night and will play Class 3A, Region 4 foe Hatley on Friday night.
Boys Game
The Chargers played late into the night on Saturday to close out a long day in the Mid-mississippi Challenge and came up just short in a furious comeback attempt.
Choctaw County (4-8) trailed by over 20 points in the second half and were down by 13 points with over 2:30 left in the game. The Chargers continued to fight and cut the lead to 73-65 with under 2 minutes left with a chance to get it closer but couldn't connect on a couple of different opportunities and time ran out on them.