For the first time this season the Wildcats can say they have a winning streak brewing with back-to-back district wins boosting Columbia to second place in Region 8-3A.
Columbia (5-12, 2-1) tipped off the victories Jan. 14 with a 67-58 home win over Tylertown before besting Seminary 63-49 at home Friday.
Head coach Charlie James said it’s a great feeling to see the Wildcats’ hard work guide them to contention.
“We needed some contributions from some other guys, and we’ve had several guys over the past two games really step up and put their imprint on the team,” he said. “That’s been huge for us.”
It was Ziquae Amos who led the charge against Tylertown with 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting, and Josh Brown added a crucial 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
James said their improvement made Columbia’s offense so much more dynamic and took pressure off of Jaheim Oatis and Daqwan Jones, who had been combining to shoulder much of the scoring burden.
“Ziquae Amos, Josh Brown, Chandler Carver, Elizjah Abram and Tyler Quinn all stepped in and had some big timely buckets, defensive stops and offensive rebounds. It was a collective effort,” James said. “It’s real gratifying when you see that type of effort.”
Columbia had lost nine of 10 heading into the Tylertown game, and the quintet of Amos, Brown, Carver, Abram and Quinn averaged a combined 19.9 points per game on 38% shooting during that stretch. But against the Chiefs they scored a combined 48 points on 20-of-29 shooting (69%). Their previous best game during that stretch was in Columbia’s lone win against East Marion: scoring 29 points on 11-of-19 shooting (58%). They had seven games during the 10-game sample where they shot 27% or worse as a group.
They complimented Oatis, who had 16 points and eight rebounds, well and played off the big man’s energy.
“(Oatis) has some seasoning to go, but when he comes out and sets the tone early it helps the other guys relax a little bit. He’s done a great job of settling the team down and has made some great decisions with the basketball,” James said. “The kids really feed off when he’s playing like that.”
While stats weren’t available for the Seminary game by press time, James said Brown, Carver and Quinn kept up the recent uptick and played extremely well.
“These past couple of games Josh Brown has really played exceptionally well. He’s attacked the basket, and that has given us a different dimension to have someone attacking the basket and making good decisions going downhill,” James said.
While the win-loss column hasn’t reflected it, James said the Wildcats have been competitive all year, especially in the first half of games before something bad happens and the wheels fall off. He said he’s been telling the Wildcats if they could put together a complete game, the results would change and they did.
“Over the last three of four games, we’ve started to figure that out. Hopefully we can continue to improve because we still have a long way to go,” he said. “We just need to keep getting some guys some experience and get them to start believing in themselves. It’s definitely always great when you see some improvement and get the W.”
One of the bigger differences in the two wins was the Wildcats made a lot of the easy shots around the rim they had been missing.
The pair of victories don’t make a season, though, and James said there are still several areas Columbia can improve.
He highlighted team defense, rebounding, getting to loose balls and off-ball movement offensively as the aspects improvement is necessary.
“Those are the type of things that typically improve as the season goes on,” he said.
Columbia played host to West Marion Tuesday night, but results were unavailable at press time.
The Wildcats will spend the final two weeks of the regular season on the road, beginning with a matchup with Jeff Davis County Friday.
Pictured Above: Columbia's Jaheim Oatis passes over West Marion's defense. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
