Cougars survive PW Patriots; Lady Cougars ease past Lady Pats
The Helena- West Helena Central Cougars ( 6- 3, 5- 0) survived a pesky challenge from the Palestine- Wheatley Patriots ( 7- 8 overall and 3- 3 in the conference) behind a 53-45 win to stay unbeaten in the 3A- 6 conference.
It was the Patriots' second consecutive conference loss, after winning two in a row.
After trailing 2-0, the Cougars took double- digit leads three times during the contest but could never put the Patriots away.
In the opening quarter, Helena-West Helena built a 14-4 lead with 2: 05 to go in the first quarter behind three pointers from Samari Henry and Jermaine Williams.
The Patriots got back-to-back baskets from Connor White and Kyle Wright to end the quarter cutting the Cougars' lead to six at 14-8.
The Cougars opened the second period with a Jordan Covington three to push the lead back to nine, but again the Patriots answered, scoring five consecutive points. White’s basket cut the Cougar lead to four at 1713 with 4:21 remaining in the first half.
The two teams went back and forth the final four minutes of the first half with both turning the ball over and failing to take advantage of those opportunities. A basket by Covington with 1:04 left in the second closed out the first half scoring and sent Helena- West Helena to the locker room with a 26-18 lead at the intermission.
Quick baskets by Williams and Kylen Ester pushed the HelenaWest Helena lead to 12 with 6:06 to go in the third. PalestineWheatley again answered and got back in the game, beginning with a three- point shot from Peyton Hill to make it 30-21.
The Cougars took a 12-point lead on two free throws by Williams with 2: 03 to go in the third. P-W answered with a 9 to 2 run over the next 2:25 minutes. P’Caylin Carter got the Patriots within five points at 41-36 with 7:52 remaining in the game.
That would be as close as they would get.
Following a time out by Cougar head coach Norman Snerling Central scored eight consecutive points including Anthonilus Vincent’s basket with 3:23 to push the Cougars back to a 13- point lead. That lead grew to 53-38 on a basket by Ester with 1:55 to go and Central coasted down the stretch to the eight-point win.
Ester led the Cougars 17 points followed by Williams with 15. Hill and Aveian Smith led PW with nine points each.
Snerline was pleased with the performance and remaining undefeated in conference play. He said, “Overall, I am pleased with the way we are playing, we just have to continue to get better at minimizing turnovers.”
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The Helena- West Helena Central Lady Cougars (7-2, 4-1) held Palestine-Wheatley (6-9, 3-3) scoreless for nine minutes to break open the game as they cruised to a 55- 20 win in 3A- 6 conference play.
Palestine- Wheatley’s Gentry Bass scored to cut the HelenaWest Helena lead to 14- 13 with 6:52 to go in the second quarter.
The Lady Cougars would score the next nineteen points helped by Kassidy Truitt who closed out the first half scoring on a basket with 0:16 left to make it 29-13 at the intermission.
A basket by Taylor Gray with 6: 55 to go in the third quarter pushed the lead to twenty points for the first time.
Brandi Nelson ended the drought for the Lady Patriots when she nailed a long- range three-point shot, but PalestineWheatley would manage only two more points in the period and a basket by Katelyn Donaldson at the buzzer gave Central a 22-point lead at the end of the third.
Donaldson’s basket came in the midst of a 12-0 run that ended with a Donaldson three-pointer and a later free throw to make it 46-18 with 5:44 to go in the game. Helena- West Helena outscored the Lady Patriots 9-2 the rest of the way to set the final.
Central head coach Kevin Pringle was pleased to get the win.
“Our team played decent," Pringle said "I think we are getting off to slow starts because we haven’t been able to play many games. We are still working out kinks.”
Donaldson led the Lady Cougars with 21 points, followed by Truitt with 16. Gray added 11. Nelson led the Lady Patriots with nine points followed by Bass with eight.