Lewis, Indians rally past Harrison Central

BILOXI-- Guard Jordan Lewis scored 21 of his team-high 23 points in the second half, lifting Biloxi to a come-from-behind 69-62 victory over Harrison Central on Friday in the Biloxi Sports Arena.

Biloxi improved to 12-6 overall and 1-1 in Division 8-6A while Harrison Central (11-9, 2-1) dropped its first division game.

Biloxi trailed 45-39 with 1:38 to go in the third quarter but then the Indians started their comeback.

The Indians won the game at the free throw line, making 17 of 20 attempts. Conversely, the Red Rebels failed to capitalize enough at the line, making only 19 of 34 attempts.

"I told my team that to win we had to come out and play defense tougher,'' Lewis said. "In the first quarter and first half, they were playing tougher than us. We had to come back out and play strong.''

Lewis hit on all five of his free throws in the fourth quarter and Biloxi hit a sparkling 13 of 13 at the line in the fourth quarter.

"We practice, we run, so when our legs are tired we can hit free throws in big situations,'' Lewis said.''

Biloxi was coming off a division loss to Hancock, the first loss to Hancock since the 1981 season. That made a home win over HCHS imperative.

"We had to get this one because we already lost one to Hancock,'' Lewis said. "This was a big one for us to win.''

Fred Ramsey-Thompson added 14 for Biloxi, and Martel Turner had 11 in a game in which there were seven ties.

Harrison Central guard Biscuit Floyd hit for a game-high 26 points, including a trey at the buzzer just before halftime to put the Red Rebels up 30-24. Floyd's trey with 2:36 tied the game at 58, the last time the game was deadlocked. But Lewis answered with a trey just four seconds later to give Biloxi the lead for good. Dayquan Perkins added 9 points for HCHS.

Harrison Central girls 68, Biloxi 39: Adyn Strickland and Keyshauna Johnson each scored 10 points as HCHS improved to 14-6 overall and 3-0 in 8-6A. In all, eight Red Rebelettes scored seven or more points.

Breanna Riley and Alexis McDaniel paced Biloxi (6-11, 1-1) with 11 points apiece. Harrison Central led 27-9 at halftime and put the game away with a 25-point third quarter.

This story was originally published January 15, 2016 at 11:44 PM with the headline "Lewis, Indians rally past Harrison Central ."