Consider Tuesday night a dress rehearsal.
The performances that count will come Tuesday night.
The New Hope High School basketball teams took positive steps toward third meetings against West Point with two victories in the Class 5A, Region 2, District 1 regular-season finale in Columbus.
Jason Tate had 18 points to lead four scorers in double figures in the New Hope boys team’s 77-69 victory.
In the opener, D.J. Sanders had 16 points and Jasmine Gardner added 10 to lead the New Hope girls to a 50-47 win.
The victories didn’t affect the pairings for the region tournament, which will begin Tuesday at Oxford High. New Hope wrapped up the No. 2 seed in the boys and girls tournaments and will face West Point, the No. 3 seed, while top-seeded Oxford will take on fourth-seeded Saltillo. Times for the tournament will be announced today.
While the wins didn’t help New Hope escape another set of matchups against West Point, they did allow the Trojans and Lady Trojans to gain confidence. Last week, the West Point boys beat New Hope 82-59, while the Lady Green Wave earned a 58-54 victory.
New Hope coaches Drew McBrayer and Laura Lee Holman said the wins helped erase bad memories and gave their teams momentum as they prepare for games Thursday against Caledonia and Friday against West Oktibbeha.
Demetri Clark provided a lift for New Hope (15-9) with 12 points on four 3-pointers. Lawrence Brown added 15 points, while Jock Pilgrim had 13 and Curtaves Latham had nine.
“Demetri has been practicing extremely hard and showing up more and more in games,” McBrayer said. “This is second night he started. Against Oxford on Friday was the first time he started, and he has earned it. He is playing extremely well right now.”
McBrayer hopes Clark will continue to play well to give the Trojans another weapon. He said Tate and Pilgrim provide shooting and penetration from the perimeter, while Brown is a low-post threat. With Latham and Clark providing even more balance, McBrayer feels the latest effort will help his team know they can beat the Green Wave again, even on a neutral court.
“We have to show up ready to play,” McBrayer said. “It is not home-court advantage anymore. It is on a neutral court, and some of those shots we hit tonight probably won’t fall.”
West Point (10-14, 3-3 region) trailed by as many as 17 points in the third quarter and by as many as 16 in the fourth quarter. It couldn’t trim the lead to less than eight in the final stanza.
“They shot the ball so well tonight,” West Point coach Brad Cox said. “We’re going to have to do a better job finding shooters and having a hand up when they shoot.”
Cox said his team will need to get the ball inside better than it did Tuesday night. He said his team hit its outside shots in the first meeting, but he felt New Hope was the more aggressive team in the rematch.
“We kind of dug ourselves a hole there,” Cox said. “I was very proud the kids kept playing hard and never quit. … It was just kind of a slow start as far as the intensity and the little things. We missed a few outside shots early. The first time we played them we hit those outside shots. On nights when those shots aren’t going in, all of those other things get magnified.”
Daryl Thomas paced West Point with 17 points, while Laquante Gaston had 15 and Keon McKinney had 10.
In the girls game, New Hope trailed for most of the game, and as many by five in the fourth quarter, before it responded to a challenge from Holman. Holman told her players they were “not giving it all you got” and that they had to “quit playing scared.” The Lady Trojans (19-5) came out of the timeout more aggressive, and their scores that followed proved it. Gardner scored on an offensive rebound putback, Moesha Calmes collected a loose ball and scored on a short jump shot, Kaitlin Bradley (eight points) made a steal and converted a layup, and Sanders grabbed a rebound and drove the length of the floor for a bucket. It wasn’t until Gardner’s hook shot off a pass from Lauren Holifield that new Hope took its first lead since the second quarter, 48-47, with 3 minutes, 41 seconds remaining.
“I think our effort and execution at times was definitely a lot better (than the first game),” Holman said. “Their hearts and their will to win (played a big part in the outcome). They just kept fighting and fighting. If I can get them to play a whole game the way they played that last three or four minutes, we would be really tough.”
Holman said Sanders battled a stomach big Monday night, and she tried to do her best to substitute her often so she was fresh for the final quarter. She said it will be tough to play a team a third time, let alone on three consecutive Tuesdays. She also hopes she won’t have to waste a timeout to “cheerlead” in a timeout.
“I felt they needed a gutcheck and needed somebody to get in their face,” Holman said. “Begging wasn’t working, so demanding it was my next option.”
West Point (10-14) had more than its share of chances to tie the game or to take the lead, including a missed layup in the final minute. But the Lady Green Wave went the final 4:12 without a field goal. Taylor McCrary led West Point with 17 points, while Adrianna Billups had 10 and Wilma Davis and Kinyada Pittman each had seven.
“We lost Friday at Saltillo and we shouldn’t have,” West Point coach Murray Woody said. “We played absolutely terrible, so we kind of had a gutcheck Monday at practice about playing to their ability. We did a good job of controlling tempo, and she tried to press us and speed us up. At times, they were successful, and D.J. kind of took over in the second half and got them back in the game.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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