Tigers, Wildcats split two
By By Marty Stamper/EMG sports assistant
February 1, 2003
NEWTON With the 2002-03 basketball regular season rapidly winding down, the Newton Lady Tigers and Kemper County Wildcats each added a Division 5-2A win to their collection Friday night.
The Newton girls beat Kemper County 60-40 in the opener to improve to 9-0 in 5-2A and 17-9 overall. The Lady Tigers have already clinched the league's regular season championship.
Kemper County fell to 9-14 overall and 5-4 in 5-2A.
Newton held a slim 13-12 lead after one quarter before stretching out to a 30-19 halftime advantage.
Newton got eight points each from Kotreece Bender and Aja Loveless in the third quarter to take a 49-33 lead into the final period. The Lady Tigers went up by 20 at 53-33 with 6:33 to play.
Bender led Newton with 20 points. Creoshia Williams hit three 3-pointers in getting 13 points, while Loveless finished with 12 points.
Kemper County got 12 points from Melody Nave, 11 from Candra McCoy, and nine from Monique Mosley.
Both schools return to action today at Newton's first-annual Rush Challenge.
Kemper County 93
Newton boys 69
The Wildcats placed five players in double figures and racked up 54 points in the second half in beating Newton handily.
Kemper County improved to 7-2 in 5-2A with both losses coming to league-leading South Leake, which had a 7-1 mark going into Friday's league game at Clarkdale. Kemper County is 12-13 overall.
Newton dropped to 5-4 in the league and 10-14 overall.
Kemper County led 17-11 at the end of the first period with back-to-back 3-pointers by Gary Griffin leading the charge and pulled out to a 39-25 halftime advantage. Terrance Westerfield hit a pair of treys in the second quarter.
The Wildcats held a 66-48 advantage going into the fourth quarter as Omarion Backstrom scored six straight points during an 11-0 run as Kemper County went up 58-36.
Newton's Cornelius Caraway also had a good third period as he tallied 13 of his game-high 31 points.
Westerfield led Kemper County with 27 points. Griffin had 15, Backstrom and Rodricus Hopson both added 14, and Shardricus Thompson tossed in 12. Thompson and Hopson are both freshmen.
Newton also got 10 points from Coshune Bingham, eight from David Edwards, and six from Josh Norman.
