Newton High takes three on home court

By By Ryan Satcher/staff writer
June 22, 2002
Newton High School won three basketball games on its home floor in the State Games of Mississippi on Friday.
The boys' team took a 51-37 win over Cleveland while the girls beat Cleveland 55-48 and then beat Crystal Springs 47-37.
In other games, the Crystal Springs girls beat Taylorsville 65-34 while the Jefferson County girls beat Taylorsville 57-28 and the Cleveland boys beat Pillow Academy 51-44. A
The Newton boys jumped out to an early lead over Cleveland and was able to give many players valuable playing time. The Newton girls had a tougher battle with Cleveland but was able to hang on for the win. The Lady Tigers then disposed of Crystal Springs without any real trouble.
Newton girls 55
Cleveland 48
Newton got 27 points from Kotreece Bender and held off a late charge by Cleveland to take a 55-48 win on Friday.
Cleveland led the game early as it put together a 7-0 run to lead the game 13-6 with 9:07 left in the first half. Newton was able to cut the lead to one point with 3:06 left in the half on a free throw by Bender. Newton later tied the game when Twilla Clayton made a free throw.
Clayton gave Newton the lead just before half on a three-pointer with 47 seconds left in the half. Cleveland tied the game up with 24 seconds left but a free throw by Rosiland Jones gave Newton a one point lead at the half.
Newton stormed out off half with an 11-2 run to make the score 36-28 with 10:48 left in the game. Cleveland was able to slowly cut into the lead down the stretch but found itself trailing by six with five minutes left.
A couple baskets by Candace Liger cut the lead to 47-45 with two minutes left in the game. Newton stayed composed and outscored Cleveland 8-3 in the final two minutes to take the win. Bender made four free throws down the stretch to ice the game for Newton.
Bender's 27 points were a game-high. Clayton and Creoshia Williams added eight points each for the Lady Tigers. Liger led Cleveland with 16 points. Tish Brown had 12 points while Rebekah Brown had 10.
Newton girls 47
Crystal Springs 37
The Newton girls jumped out to a big lead in the second half and held on to beat Crystal Springs on Friday night.
With the win, Newton moves to 3-0 in pool play.
Crystal Springs led 12-7 halfway through the first half. That's when the Lady Tigers started a run to take the lead. The Lady Tigers outscored Crystal Springs 17-4 over the next six minutes. Bender was responsible for most of the scoring over the stretch. She scored nine points in the run for Newton.
Crystal Springs made two free throws with seven seconds left to cut the lead to six but Bender made a basket and was fouled with two seconds left. She made the free throw and Newton led 27-18 at the half.
Newton came out on fire in the second half and outscored Crystal Springs 16-4 in the first six minutes of the second half. Crystal Springs came back to cut the lead down to 45-25 with a three-point play and another basket.
Newton was able to play subs late in the ball game and Crystal Springs took advantage of the opportunity. It outscored the Lady Tigers 12-2 in the final seven minutes of the second half to make the final score 47-37.
Bender led Newton with 17 points. Aja Loveless added 10 points in the victory. Corissa Tillman led Crystal Springs with 11 points.
Newton boys 51
Cleveland 37
Newton jumped out to a quick lead on Cleveland and never looked back as the Tigers took a 51-37 win on Friday.
Newton opened the game with a 12-0 run. Cleveland finally got it's first basket of the game with 8:54 left in the half on a shot by Anderson Davis.
Cleveland was able to cut the lead down to eight points later in the half but Newton came back to stretch the lead with a 10-2 run. The Tigers took a secure 29-15 lead into the half.
Newton was able to stretch the lead to 19 points in the early part of the second half. Coshaune Bingham scored seven points for the Tigers in the early run.
The lead stayed around 19 points for much of the second half. With 3:05 left in the game Cleveland started a run. Led by Henry Marshall, Cleveland made a 10-1 to cut the lead to 11 points but the effort was too late as Newton took the 51-37 win.
One of the advantages of taking the easy win was Newton was able to play a lot of players. Many players were able to get valuable playing time the in game.
Bingham led the Tigers with a 20 point performance. Zach Logan had seven points while Courtney Ruffin added six. Davis led Cleveland with eight points while Marshall had seven.
Crystal Springs girls 65
Taylorsville 34
Crystal Springs jumped out to an early first-half lead and went on to beat Taylorsville 65-34 in the first game at Newton High on Friday.
Crystal Springs led the game 42-19 at the half and had no trouble holding on to the win.
Corissa Tillman had 22 points for Crystal Springs. LaSheena Anderson added 16 while Tamoria Nicholas had nine.
Kasha Williams had nine points for Taylorsville. Frankie Brown had eight while Meagan Keyes added seven.
Jefferson Co. girls 57
Taylorsville 28
Jefferson County jumped out to an early lead at halftime and held on to beat Taylorsville 57-28 on Friday.
Jefferson County led the game 35-19 at the half. It kept the pressure on in the second half and led 55-24 halfway through the second half.
Kasha Williams had nine points for Taylorsville in the loss while Frankie Brown and Meagan Keyes each had five points.
Cleveland boys 51
Pillow Academy 44
Cleveland took a lead in the first half and held off a late charge by Pillow Academy to win 51-44 in the last game at Newton High on Friday night.
Cleveland led the game 22-16 at halftime and held the lead near six points for most of the second half. Cleveland was able to expand the lead to nine points with nine minutes to go and went up nine points again with seven minutes left.
Pillow Academy cut into the lead and cut the lead to five with four minutes to go in the game. Lanny Fratesi connected on a three and was fouled for Pillow Academy with four and a half minutes left. He hit the free throw to cut the lead down to one.
Cleveland took over the game at that point and had the lead back up the seven with three minutes left. Cleveland had the lead all the way up to 11 points with 1:45 left to play and held on for the seven point win.