Kemper County takes road win over Philadelphia

By By Rocky Higginbotham/special to The Star
January 24, 2004
PHILADELPHIA Three days ago, Philadelphia's boys staged a dramatic rally in the fourth quarter to take a key Division 5-2A win.
Here Friday night, the Tornadoes gave one away.
Visiting Kemper County went on a 16-0 run during a span of 5 minutes, 59 seconds in the fourth quarter, and the Wildcats topped Philly 62-53 in a contest which finished with a frantic atmosphere.
Kemper improved to 12-11 overall, while Philadelphia dropped to 15-6. Both are now 5-3 in the Division 5-2A battle, where they're going head-to-head with Williams-Sullivan and Newton which played each other Friday in jockeying for position for the upcoming division tourney at Philly.
Case in point: Philadelphia won earlier this season at Kemper County, but lost to the Wildcats on its home floor Friday.
Philly won the girls' contest easily, taking a 59-33 win over Kemper County.
Both schools are on the road Tuesday in division contests, as PHS visits Lake and Kemper goes to the Mississippi School for Math and Science.
Kemper Co. boys 62
Philadelphia 53
The contest was pretty tight throughout, although Philadelphia did open up leads as big as 10 points on two separate occasions.
The Tornadoes were up eight (44-36) going into the fourth period and led 45-39 when the drought began.
Robinson burned two timeouts during Kemper's 16-0 run, when the Wildcats got two putbacks from Colby Wren and layups from Shardricus Thompson and Rodricus Hopson off complimentary steals from each other.
When the run was over, Kemper was up 55-45, and although the Tornadoes got within six, Wren put the nail in the coffin with a thunderous two-handed dunk with 25 seconds left.
Kemper's trio of sophomore sensations Wren, Thompson and Hopson all scored in double figures. Hopson tallied 20 points and had six steals, Wren had 15 points and 17 rebounds and Thompson scored 14 points and handed out seven assists.
William Dale added eight points six in the fourth quarter and Andrew Harrington had eight boards for Kemper, which held a 49-41 edge on the glass.
Bobby Goodin had 20 points and seven assists to lead Philadelphia, while Trey Beamon (14 points, 13 rebounds) and John Williams (11 points, 10 rebounds) both turned in double-doubles.
Philadelphia girls 59
Kemper Co. 33
The Lady Tornadoes ran their record to 17-4 overall and 7-1 in league play, and showed no ill effects after suffering their first division loss to Newton earlier this week.
The Lady Tornadoes got five 3-pointers three of them in the third quarter from Ashley Lowery. She finished with 15 points, while Dominetrix Hunter had 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Natonya McWilliams had nine rebounds and five blocked shots, as Philly held a 49-39 edge on the glass. Shanese Hunter tallied seven points and six rebounds and Shenique Brass had six points and six assists.
Melody Nave led Kemper County with nine points, while Lakaisha Coleman had nine rebounds. Freshman Javitia Eades had seven points and six rebounds as the Lady Wildcats fell to 5-18 overall and 2-6 in division action.