FCAHS, Stone High win Boys, Girls' titles at Vancleave Tournament
VANCLEAVE -- Forrest County AHS overcame a slow start to beat Greene County 48-39 in the Vancleave Paul Walker Classic on Wednesday.
Behind Dylan Lawrence and Larue Weaver, who each scored five points and hit a trey in the first quarter, the Wildcats (5-7) jumped off to an 18-5 lead over the Aggies (4-11). At the half, though, Aggies coach Grayson Timidrishi settled his team down and told them to go to the press.
"I felt we could still come back," Timidrishi said. "We've came back from worse. At halftime, I told (my players) to get back to our game plan and pressure the ball and stay in the press."
Ball pressure paid off for the Aggies, finishing the game with a 26-7 run over the last half of the third quarter and the entire fourth quarter. Ten Aggies points came off Greene County turnovers.
D.J. Hinton buried a 3-pointer for Greene County with 4:30 left in the third quarter. From there, it was all FCAHS who came back behind Xavier Causey and Cameron Gardner who each scored six points after halftime.
"We can use this championship as a confidence boost and see our true potential," Timidrishi said. "Hopefully we can use the momentum and take it into district play."
Gardner and A.J. Campbell each scored 10 points to pace Forrest County. Logan Pierce added nine points with Causey finishing with eight points.
Weaver and D'ante Collins each scored 10 for Greene County. D.J. Hinton added eight points and Lawrence finished with seven points.
"We can play really, really well or we can play really, really bad," Greene County coach Marty Noblitt said. "We have not been consistent all year. We are really hoping the experience they are gaining now will help us down the stretch.The more experience they get, the better we are going to be."
Stone High girls 46, East Central 35: Beth Owen, who scored 11 of her game-high 15 points in the first half, the Tomcats jumped out to a 21-13 halftime lead and never looked back. The Lady Tomcats led consistently by 10 throughout the second half to win the girls side of the tournament.
East Central made a small run on the Tomcats (8-7), but Stone County would not let the Hornets come to within nine in the final minutes, hitting 7-of-8 free throws, led by Hydia McDonald, who hit all four of her free throws, in the final 1:12 of the game to seal the win.
"We executed on the court," said Stone High coach Samuel Smith. "When (East Central) had to foul to come back, we hit our free throws down the stretch. Anytime you get on a streak, you gain confidence."
Marly Fairly scored 11 for the Lady Tomcats. Sania Wells led East Central with 11 points.
In other tournament games:
Vancleave 64, East Central 33: Tournament host Bulldogs rolled to win the third-place game. Nic Brewer had 17 points. Kylan Johnson added 10 points. Ahmad Brown led East Central with 13 points.
Long Beach 60, Stone County 39: Long Beach led 32-4 at the half to take the fifth place game. Tim Lewis scored 26 to lead the Bearcats. Cameron McDonald led the Tomcats with 12.
Greene County 36, FCAHS 35: Greene County held FCAHS to just one basket in the fourth quarter to edge the Lady Aggies in the third-place game. Holly Elmore led the Lady Wildcats with 10 points.
St. Patrick 43, Vancleave 34: Morgan McCrea scored 16 in the first half as the Fighting Irish took the fifth-place game. McCrea finished with 22 points. Makayla Jordan led the Lady Bulldogs with 12 points.
This story was originally published December 30, 2015 at 9:35 PM with the headline "FCAHS, Stone High win Boys, Girls' titles at Vancleave Tournament ."