While much of the attention in Marion County has been on Columbia football’s state championship run, basketball is starting to take center stage, especially after Thanksgiving.
Columbia Academy Lady Cougars (6-5)
The Lady Cougars maintained their up-and-down nature this season by going .500 in their two games prior to Thanksgiving. Columbia Academy dominated Centreville Academy 61-26 on Nov. 22 but turned around and lost 72-36 to Simpson Academy the next day.
Head coach Dale Watts said he was really disappointed in the Lady Cougars’ performance in the second game after Simpson jumped on CA quick with its full-court pressure defense.
“They pressed us and we made several turnovers and just got behind early. I didn’t think we played very well. We did not handle their pressure,” he said. “Offensively, we did OK, but we missed some high-percentage shots that had we made, we would’ve stayed in the ball game.”
Since that game, dealing with that kind of pressure and stressing the importance of making the easy looks have been Watts’ focus in practice with the Lady Cougars. They got five full days off between the Simpson game and practice on Monday, but the Lady Cougars were worked hard in practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in preparation for Thursday’s game at Laurel Christian (results unavailable at press time).
In the five games left before Christmas, Watts said CA will face several quality teams that will test how much the Lady Cougars have improved, including Saturday’s home game against Copiah Academy and a rematch with Simpson Dec. 17.
There is no district tournament this season, and nearly the entirety of CA’s district schedule will be played on Tuesdays and Fridays in January, apart from the final district game Feb. 1. Watts said the early portion of the schedule is all preparing for January and identifying CA’s weaknesses to either improve them or find a way to play around them.
Columbia Lady Wildcats (0-6)
It wouldn’t be wise to buy too much stock into Columbia’s winless record so far as the Lady Wildcats have been competitive in nearly every game.
That trend continued Tuesday at home when they nearly upset Petal in a 38-36 loss, but head coach Charlie James has nothing but optimism going forward.
“The girls played hard, but we just have to do a better job at the free-throw line. We missed 11 free throws in the game, but that’s expected from a fairly young group that we’re playing right now,” he said. “They have improved with every game, and that’s all I can ask.”
James said it’s definitely encouraging to go toe-to-toe with a Class 6A opponent like Petal, and he believes the arrow is pointing up for the Lady Wildcats.
Freshman point guard Jakira Brown led Columbia with 19 points, while Payshunce Sims chipped in six points, Patrice Oatis added five, Aleigha Watts had four and Bailey Expose two.
“We just have to improve on our execution,” he said. “Once we do that, I think we’ll be competitive in district.”
The Lady Wildcats played host to East Marion Friday night, but results were unavailable at press time. They will play at North Forrest Tuesday before returning home to take on Seminary next Friday.
Columbia has one district game before Christmas — Dec. 14 against Forrest County AHS — then the rest of the district schedule will be played in January.
West Marion Lady Trojans (5-3)
In just head coach Calvin “Scope” Newsome’s first season, West Marion already looks like an entirely different team. However, the Lady Trojans still have some work to do, which was evident against Poplarville Nov. 26.
Despite having a late lead on the road, West Marion couldn’t close it out and fell 46-38.
“We’ve shown signs of improvement, but we still have a ways to go with closing out games when we’ve got leads. We just have to be focused when we have leads to continue to hold the lead. We gave the game away to Poplarville because we lacked that focus and discipline to finish the game,” Newsome said. “We were short four of our players, but that’s no excuse.”
It often gets overlooked because most of the time, the focus is on the skills of individual players and how those skills come together to make a team. But there truly is skill to learning how to win close games as a team, and Newsome pointed to a famous line from Bear Bryant: “It’s not the will to win that matters — everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
“That’s what I’m trying to get our girls to understand. You have to prepare to win; you can’t just think it’s going to happen overnight,” Newsome said. “You have to prepare yourself.”
West Marion did bounce back Nov. 27 at home with a 38-14 win over Picayune.
The Lady Trojans started their district slate Friday at home against Our Lady Academy, but results were unavailable at press time. They played host to Salem Saturday night (results unavailable) and will remain at home to take on East Marion Dec. 10.
West Marion will have six non-district games before resuming its region schedule Jan. 4 at Jeff Davis County, and Newsome said the point of emphasis for the Lady Trojans is physically getting in shape.
“We have to get them in shape physically so that they can handle certain situations mentally. Any coach that has played the game knows a lot of mistakes come when you’re not physically in shape because mentally you can’t perform if you’re not physically in shape,” he said.
East Marion Lady Eagles (2-3)
The Lady Eagles were the busiest team in Marion County over the Thanksgiving break, playing four games and winning two of them.
It started Nov. 22 when East Marion beat Salem 42-37 and lost to Brookhaven 51-28 the next day in the Lawrence County Thanksgiving Tournament. On Nov. 27, as part of the Pearl River Community College Thanksgiving Shootout, the Lady Eagles lost 46-27 to Greene County. But they responded well Tuesday, demolishing Salem on the road 56-13.
Head coach Calvin Brown said although the Lady Eagles still have a long way to go, he’s been pleased with their progress early in the season.
“We know we have a long way to go, but we appear to be up to it. Our focus is just to stay the course,” he said.
Greene County and Brookhaven are both much bigger schools than East Marion, and the idea behind scheduling schools like that is to get better through tougher competition. But with a team as young as the Lady Eagles, who’s entire rotation consists of freshmen and sophomores apart from All-Star Destiny Brown, it can have an inverse effect because tough losses can be demoralizing, according to Brown. He said time will tell if it paid off or not, but he’s hopeful it will make East Marion better in the long run.
Destiny Brown leads East Marion by a wide margin in points per game with 17.0, while Alyssa Watts (6.6 points per game), Ellen Porter (6.0) and Jayda Porter (5.4) are the only other players averaging more than three points a game. However, while Destiny Brown doesn’t have any other upperclassmen around her, coach Brown said the underclassmen are extremely talented, athletic and coachable.
“As they grow and learn the difference between junior high and high school, or the ones who have played knowing the difference between just being a role player and being counted on, I really like our potential and what we could be,” he said.
East Marion played at Columbia Friday night, but results were unavailable at press time. The Lady Eagles will play at Jeff Davis County Tuesday and at West Marion next Friday.
