Columbia’s recent hot streak came to a screeching halt Tuesday in the Region 8-3A semifinals Tuesday as the Wildcats struggled on the road in a loss.
The Wildcats (7-9, 4-5) traveled to Tylertown with the tournament not being held at a central location because of the pandemic and lost a late lead to fall 52-46 to the Chiefs.
“We couldn’t handle their half-court trap and didn’t make good decisions,” head coach Jordan Dupuy said. “We actually were down by nine going into the fourth quarter and took the lead in the fourth quarter then couldn’t overcome it. We made some bad mistakes at the end and didn’t get key stops when we needed to. Nobody really played well.”
The Wildcats struggled offensively across the board with only Darius Stewart (15 points) scoring in double figures. Coming off a career game Friday night against West Marion when he had 22 points and 10 rebounds, Marlic Smith couldn’t follow it up and had just two points against the Chiefs.
“We played scared. Some people were just scared to make plays at the end. It was bad. It was obvious,” Dupuy said. “They were passive when they needed to shoot it, and they would shoot it when they needed to pass it. The decision making wasn’t very good. We panicked in a lot of areas, and we still had a chance to win.”
Columbia played in the Region 8-3A consolation game Friday night to determine if it would be the No. 3 or No. 4 seed representing the district in the Class 3A playoffs that start next week, but results were unavailable at press time. Also as of press time Thursday afternoon, the Wildcats didn’t even know who they were going to play.
Jeff Davis County played host to West Marion Thursday night in the other district semifinal, with the loser facing Columbia Friday.
