MHS grabs pair of wins in tourney opener

By By Austin Bishop / EMG regional sports director
Dec. 12, 2003
If Meridian High School girls head basketball coach Donald Shirley was looking for a close game on Thursday night, he got one.
And so did MHS boys coach Ernie Watson for that matter.
The Lady Wildcats picked up a big basket off an offensive rebound and a pair of free throws in the last 34 seconds to rally for a 50-47 win over Noxubee County in the first-round of the Frazier-Yarbrough Invitational, and the 11-3 MHS boys fought back from a five-point deficit with 7:04 to play to take a 56-52 win over the NCHS Tigers.
In other action in the three-day round-robin event, the Heidelberg girls beat Quitman 54-31, and the HHS boys took a 63-54 win over the Panthers.
Today's action has the Heidelberg and Noxubee County girls playing at 4 p.m., followed by the boys at 5:30 p.m. The Meridian and Quitman girls play at 7 p.m., with the two boys teams set to meet at 8:30 p.m.
Meridian (girls) 50
Noxubee County 47
The Lady Wildcats struggled at the free-throw line down the stretch, making just 1-of-7 free throws over a two-minute period, before Brittany Davidson knocked down a pair with 3.2 seconds left to seal the win.
Noxubee County, which trailed by as many as 11 (27-16) in the first half, took the lead at 47-46 on a fast-break basket with 1:04 left in the game.
After a pair of missed free throws by MHS, the Tigerettes regained control of the ball, but the Lady Wildcats put heavy pressure on the ball, causing one of the Noxubee County players to retreat into the backcourt for a violation.
MHS made that mistake hurt.
While the Lady Wildcats missed the ensuing shot, Whitney Hood gathered in the offensive rebound and put the ball back up for the go-ahead points with 34 seconds to play in the game.
Noxubee County missed a pair of free throws with 12.9 seconds left, setting up Davidson's final two free throws.
Davidson led Meridian with 14 points, while Hood scored 12 and Amber Walker added 10.
LaToya Williams had 18 for Noxubee, while Kirconia Hopkins and Brittany Tate scored 12 each.
Meridian (boys) 56
Noxubee County 52
The Wildcats went into the game wanting to wear the Tigers down, and Watson said that's what his team did.
Noxubee County led 12-9 after one quarter of play, 30-25 at the half and 43-40 after three quarters of action.
But the last quarter belonged to MHS.
After the Tigers scored the first two points of the last quarter to go up 45-40 on a basket by Dan Bryant with 7:04 to play, the Wildcats outscored the visitors 16-7 the rest of the way to take the win.
Jocolby Davis hit both ends of a one-plus-one to bring the Wildcats to within one point at 49-48 with 3:46 to play and Cyrus McGowan slammed one home on a break 30 seconds later to give the winners the one-point lead.
Noxubee did manage to tie the game at 50-50 on a free throw by Brandon Tate with 2:55 left, but Meridian scored the next five points to take control of the game.
McGowan led Meridian with 13 points, while Davis and Chris Harris scored nine each.
LaGuantis Horne led Noxubee with 15 points, while Tim Lowery scored 14 and Tate had 11.
Watson says he sees some things in this year's team that he likes.