It might not have been as pretty to eyes as the snow that blanketed Jackson Parish on Sunday and Monday a week ago but for the coaches of the boys basketball teams in Jackson Parish the games played on the following Tuesday thru Friday was a beautiful sight to see.  Instead of a winter storm it was a “perfect storm” that was enjoyed as Quitman and Weston, who celebrated Homecoming on Friday, won both of their contests while J-H played only one but ended up with the most impressive victory of all. 

It wasn’t only the Jackson Parish teams that had a good week but the entire expanded Jackson Parish Journal coverage area which went 13-7 overall in games played January 12th thru the 15th. Area schools Dodson and Winnfield also won a pair of games  with Ruston, Saline and Choudrant winning one of two each. The schedule wasn’t as rewarding for Calvin and Cedar Creek which lost both of their contests and West Ouachita who dropped the only game they played. 

Weston 60 Forest 56 (Friday, January 15th): Jace Holt, who returned to the team earlier in the week after an extended absence, scored 28 points for a second straight time to help the Wolves honor Queen Madison Coody and her court with a victory. The season best tying, second straight win improved Weston to 8-11 and dropped fellow Class B foe, Forest to 2-11 on the year.

After both teams managed only seven points in the first eight minutes, Braden Theriot and Landon Roberts scored eight and seven respectively in the game deciding, second quarter that saw Weston win by a 24-13 margin. Theriot, who finished with 12 and has emerged as a solid scoring threat in 2021, was a perfect 7 of 7 from the free throw line where as a team Weston went 10 for 14.

Forest made a run in the second half to make the game close but Holt and Eli McBride, who scored 8 of his 10 points in the contest, was pivotal in helping Weston keep Forest at bay , who had only four players score but all reach double figures. Kaden Shirley added a second quarter trey to round out the scoring for the Wolves. 

Weston (8-11)     7 24 10 19 – 60
Forest (2-11)       7 13 13 23 – 56

WHS scoring: Holt 28, Theriot 12, McBride 11, Roberts 7, Shirley 3
Forest scoring: Seamons 19, Williams 15, Hudson 12, Miley 10 

Weston 74 Atlanta 59 (Tuesday, January 12th): It would be safe to say that things have definitely changed for the better for Weston in their long series against traditional Class C foe, Atlanta as the Wolves won easily for their sixth straight victory over the last three years after dropping 33 of 35 in the previous decade. 

Jace Holt scored a game high 28 points in the first game he has played in 2021 to help the Wolves stop a two game slide and improve to 7-11 on the year. After nearly two decades of being a dominate team in Class C, Atlanta has fallen on hard times in recent years and continue to struggle this season with a 1-6 record.

It was one of the best shooting nights of the year for Weston as they canned 11 shots from behind the arc as a team to pave the way to their season tying high in point total. Davis Tolar led the trey parade with four en-route to a strong 18 point performance. Eli McBride, Kaden Shirley and Cooper Harvey would also go down town as they finished the contest with 13, 8 and 3 respectively. Freshman Braden Theriot chipped in with four.

Weston (7-11)   14 19 17 24 – 74
Atlanta (1-6)     13 13 20 13 – 59

WHS scoring: Holt 28, Tolar 18, McBride 13, Shirley 8, Theriot 4, Harvey 3
AHS scoring: nash 26, Watkins 14, Slauter 6, Jenkins 4, Sykes 4, Nash 4

Quitman 49 Calvin 43 (Friday, January 15th): The Wolverines had to work the hardest to remain perfect in their two games when they grabbed victory out of the jaws of defeat with a tremendous second half rally over Calvin this past Friday night to win their season best fifth in a row by a 49-43 score. In earlier action the night before the Wolverines had no trouble taking down Castor 66-42.

Calvin raced out to a 20-5 first quarter lead over home-standing Quitman and went into the half with a commanding 29-12 advantage. The Wolverines flipped the script in the third to win the quarter by a 21-6 margin and outscored the Cougars 37-15 in the second half to win their 10th of the year against only 3 losses. Calvin fell to 3-3 on the year.

Joshua Smith led the way for Quitman with 15 points and 9 boards with freshman Logan Ponder adding a career high 13 on the strength of making 3 of 6 from behind the arc. Cooper Williams added nine and both Blake Carter and John Pabaya chipping in with five. L.D. Manning added a basket to round out the scoring. 

Both teams struggled with their shooting as Quitman hit only 35.5% of their shots and Calvin making 36% of theirs. From the three point line it was even worse as Calvin and Quitman both shot just a little over 16% but that is where the difference in the game was as the Wolverines made five bombs compared to just three for Calvin.

Quitman (10-3)      5 7 21 16 – 49
Calvin (3-3)           20 8   5    9 – 43

QHS scoring: Smith 15, Ponder 13, Williams 9, Carter 5, Pabaya 5, Manning 2

Quitman 66 Castor 42 (Thursday, January 14th): The Wolverines outscored Castor in every quarter and had a much easier time of it against former district rival Castor thanks to a double-double from Joshua Smith who scored 18 points on a perfect 9 of 9 shooting night  and added 13 rebounds. Cooper Williams was just one point behind with 17 and Ethan Everett chipped in with 7 as head coach Mike Black played the entire 15 man roster and nine players scored.

Quitman shot the ball well from inside the arc making 54.% of their attempts but it was the defensive effort that really stood out as the Wolverines allowed Castor to make only 14 of 53 attempts (26.4%) and just 4 of 18 from behind the arc.

Quitman (9-3)    9 16 22 19 – 66
Castor (2-6)         3 13 14 12 – 42

QHS scoring: Smith 18, Williams 17, Everett 7, Ponder 6, Rowe 4, Carter 3, Manning 2, Walker 2, Pabaya 2

Jonesboro-Hodge 46 Lakeview 44 (Friday, January 15th): Jonesboro-Hodge continued their trek through the “murderer’s row” portion of the schedule with impressive results by overcoming a ten point, third quarter deficit to take down 6th ranked Lakeview 46-44 in a thrilling Class 2A battle. The contest marked the 5th straight game that the Tigers have faced an opponent ranked in the top ten of their representative class. 

After spotting homestanding Lakeview to a 23-13 halftime advantage it was the second half offensive exploits of Ed “Robbie” Kary, Tydre Malone and Javeon Andrews and a tenacious fourth quarter defensive effort that  led the way to the impressive rally. Entering the second half with no points Kary scored 17 on the strength of five trey’s and Malone added 9 points to fuel the rally with the help of Andrews, who  added six of the 11 he totaled. Cameron Joe also chipped in with five second quarters points and Justin Calahan added four in the contest to help J-H improve to 4-4 while Lakeview dropped to 13-5 on the year. 

Jonesboro-Hodge (4-4)   7 6 9 24 – 46
Lakeview (13-5)             15 8 9 12 -44

JHHS scoring: Kary 17, Andrews 11, Malone 9, Joe 5, Calahan 4
LHS scoring: Shields 13, Howard 10, Sowell 8, Pikes 7, Driver 4, Slaughter 2

In other area action Dodson beat Downsville 69-58 and 75-57 in rare back to back contests and Winnfield bested Calvin 84-61 and Jena 77-49 to go undefeated for the week. Saline and Ruston split a pair of games as Ethan Roberts scored a career high 27, including 16 of Saline’s 18 first half points, in the 57-44 victory over Choudrant before the Bobcats fell to Negreet 72-38. Ruston won their sixth straight and district 2-5A opener by pounding Pineville 51-31 then fell to Ouachita 43-37 after being forced to play without freshman sensation Jamadrion Lillard. Choudrant beat Family Community Christian out of Winnsboro 65-11 before the loss to Saline and Arcadia, ranked 2nd in Class A, beat Haynesville 71-29 for their second straight 1-1A victory.