War Eagles sink Admirals to advance
By By Dale McKee / special to The Star
Feb. 19, 2003
WAYNESBORO The Wayne County War Eagles advanced to the second round of the South State Class 5A basketball tournament behind the hot shooting of senior guard Akeem Lofton, with a 88-81 win over the Gulfport Admirals (22-9) Tuesday night.
Lofton scored a career high 33 points, 21 in the opening half, leading the host team to a 48-23 halftime advantage.
The War Eagles (22-3) will host the next two rounds at Jones County Junior College beginning Friday night.
Wayne County will meet Moss Point at 8 p.m. Friday night at 8 p.m., and Hattiesburg and Biloxi will tangle in the opener at 6:30 p.m. The top three teams advance to Jackson the following week for the overall Class 5A tournament.
Wayne County roared out to a 12-0 lead in the opening minutes of the game.
Gulfport finally scored midway through the first quarter, but when the dust had settled in the opening eight minutes, Wayne County led 19-7.
In the second quarter, it was the Akeem Lofton show. The senior hit three three-point shots and ended the quarter with 15 points.
Gulfport started the third quarter on a 9-0 run knocking Wayne County's lead down to 48-32, but the War Eagles outscored the Admirals 17-8 to close out the third.
Wayne County entered the final quarter with a 65-42 advantage.
"I was not real comfortable even with the big lead," said Wayne County head coach Geary Jackson. "Gulfport is Gulfport, and they are so well coached."
Gulfport outscored Wayne County 39-23 in the fourth quarter, but the visiting team couldn't climb out of its early hole.
The War Eagles got a big boost from Ced Jones, who scored 12 points in the final period. Lofton tallied five points, and Dietric Slater pumped in six points before fouling out with three minutes to play.
Slater ended with 23 points, and Jones tallied 18 points for the War Eagles.
Tyshawn Brown led Gulfport's offense with 23 points, and Henry Saulters added 15. Courtney Brown chipped in 13 points.
The War Eagles' Slater had 17 rebounds, handed out six assists and had three steals. Lofton had eight rebounds and handed out three assists. Jake Allen had seven assists and grabbed five rebounds, despite not scoring in the game.
Brown had nine assists for the Admirals.
"You cannot dig a hole against a good team," said Gulfport head coach Bryan Caldwell. "I thought we sucked it up in the second half, and I am very proud of the courage we played with in the second half. We made them sweat in that final period."
