Lady Chargers edged by Lady Eagles
ACKERMAN – So much happens over the course of a basketball game that becomes the focus for teams that it's often forgotten just how vital the simple free throw is to winning and losing.
For the Choctaw County Lady Chargers, just a couple of more would have done the trick and given them a win against a solid Tupelo Christian Preparatory
School team in Saturday night's Mid-mississippi Challenge matchup.
Choctaw County attempted 38 shots from the charity stripe and made just 17 as it came up just short in a 41-40 ball game.
Lady Charger head coach Mandy Jewell was proud of her team's effort, especially on the defensive end, but the frustrations of the missed free throws were weighing on her when the final buzzer sounded.
“We missed a
lot of
early
free throws,” Jewell said. “That killed us. I have a freshman point guard and I'm putting too much pressure on her and we're having way too many turnovers. Turnovers and free throws were killer, but I'm not upset about that loss. I thought it was a great game.”
As has been the case all season, Dandy Dozen center and Alcorn State signee La'genesis Johnson was the pri
Gregg and Whitney Winter followed Culpepper in the scoring column with 14 points each for the Lady Wolverines, who improved to 12-7.
“The girls love each other and the guys love each other too,” Ginn said. “We have close-knit group on both ends. I'm very blessed to be a part of the program.”
Boys Game
The Tigers executed a relentless press the entire game and wore down the Wolverines as the game progressed.
East Webster established an 11-8 lead after one quarter and was up 26-24 at halftime. The Wolverines moved out to as much as a 34-27 advantage with 3:48 remaining in the third quarter, but Winona went on a 10-0 run to take a 37-34 lead near the end of the third.
The Tigers had an 8-0 stretch to begin the fourth quarter and gained control of the game at 45-36.
“They did a good job so hats off to them,” Ginn said of Winona. “We didn't do a good job of attacking and that goes back to game preparation. We stood around and looked at it too much instead of going at it. We'll go back to the drawing board and try to improve a couple of things there.”
Reid Gatlin scored 14 of his 17 points for East Webster in the first half, but was held to only three points in the second half, which all came from the free-throw line.
“They put a guy on him that was assigned to not let him move and that's basically what he did,” Ginn said of the secondhalf defense against Gatlin. “We had trouble getting him open for anything.”
Sedrick Taylor had 10 points for the Wolverines, who fell to 6-14.