Newton advances to semis

By By Ryan Satcher / staff writer
June 29, 2003
NEWTON Both the Newton High girls and boys came away with big victories on Saturday night in Newton to advance to the semifinals of State Games of Mississippi basketball.
The Lady Tigers took a low-scoring 26-20 victory over Pillow Academy in a tiebreaker game, and the Tigers pulled away for a 66-54 win over Bay Springs to advance.
With the win, the girls will advance to play the Pool II winner at 9 a.m. at Northwest Junior High. The Tigers will follow with a 10:15 game at Northwest.
In other games held at Newton High on Saturday, the Pillow girls beat Lake 47-41, the Nanih Waiya girls beat Newton 42-41, the Kemper County boys beat Lake 52-51, the Newton boys beat Cleveland 63-41 and the Choctaw Central girls beat Newton 65-24.
Newton girls 26
Pillow Aca. 20
Newton and Pillow Academy played their third game of the day to decide who would advance out of Pool III and the fatigue showed as Newton came away with a very low-scoring 26-20 victory in the tiebreaker game.
Tired legs and good defense led to poor shooting, but the Lady Tigers were finally able to pull out the win late in the game.
The two teams struggled to score from the start as it took nearly seven minutes for the first basket to be scored.
Nicole Williams finally knocked down a three-pointer to give Newton a 3-0 lead. The Lady Tigers stretched the lead to 6-2 after a basket and a free throw and took an 8-5 lead in to halftime.
Jessica Anderson came through with a three-point play to start the second half and stretch the lead to 11-5, but Pillow answered with a 9-0 run to take the lead for the first time in the game.
Jones later tied the game with a three and gave the Lady Tigers the lead with another three just minutes later.
Jones then hit her third three-pointer of the game with 3:12 left in the game to give Newton a 23-17 lead.
Pillow Academy cut the lead to 23-20, but could not get any closer and the Lady Tigers added a few free throws to secure the 26-20 win.
Newton High boys 66
Bay Springs 54
Newton High and Bay Springs played a physical up-and-down the floor game and in the end the Tigers of Newton High came out on top to advance to the semifinals of the State Games.
Newton jumped out to an early lead and led 19-7 with just over eight minutes left in the first half.
Bay Springs responded with a run to cut the lead down to five points with five minutes left in the half.
The Bulldogs cut the lead down to three points at one point in the first half, but Newton responded with five unanswered points to close out the half and take a 36-28 lead.
The Tigers stretched the lead out to 13 points with 6:19 left to play and then went on a run to take a 64-49 lead. The run was led by Josh Norman, who finished the game with 20 points.
Newton went on to take the game 66-54 to improve to 5-0 in this year's State Games.
Choctaw Central 65
Newton 24
Choctaw Central pushed the ball up the floor and blew past Newton 65-24 to win the girls' Pool IV
Choctaw Central went on an 11-0 run in the first half to take an 18-6 lead. After Newton cut the lead down to 10 points, Choctaw Central went on a 16-0 run to close out the half.
Ashley Flint led the way for Choctaw Central with eight points in the run. Chantay Frazier added four points in the big run.
The Lady Warriors continued to outplay the Lady Tigers in the second half and took the 65-24 win to advance to the semifinals.