District play takes center stage this Tuesday with Quitman traveling to Castor and Weston hosting Doyline in opening district 1B contests while JHHS goes to Many in a 3-2A contest as they continues their up and down district journey. The past week started well for JHHS and Weston but ended on a sour note. The pair still fared better than Quitman, who dropped both of their games to stagger into district play by losing four of their last five games. At 13-10, the Wolverines still have the best record among Jackson Parish schools with Jonesboro-Hodge standing at 7-10 and Weston falling to 9-16 on the year.

JHHS 71 Red River 69: (Tuesday) Zion Gray banked in his own miss with 1.7 seconds left to play to lift JHHS to the thrilling victory over Red River on Tuesday. The game winner improved the Tigers to 7-9 overall and 2-1 in district 3-2A play while Red River fell to 8-12 and 0-2.
JHHS trailed by 69-66 after a Red River basket but Ajay Tew drained a three pointer from the top of the key with just 13.9 seconds left to play to tie the game at 69-69. Three straight turnovers ensued, including two by Red River on inbound plays after they had called timeout. On the final miscue, Jarrius Lumpkin stepped in front of the Red River inbounds pass at mid court and drove the lane. Seemingly forever, the lay-up tantalizingly hung on the rim but then fell off into the hands of Gray who had soared high to grab the carom. His put back was short but it bounced right back to him setting up the put back that set off a wild celebration by the home crowd.
Gray’s game winning basket gave him a team best 20 points on the night that saw four Tigers reach double figures in scoring. Savantez Phillips had 19 points and 8 rebounds, Tew followed with 13 and added five assists and Lumpkin scored 11 and grabbed 10 boards for his third “double-double” on the year. Cameron Leonard added eight points, seven boards, four assists and four steals.

TEAM	1	2	3	4	TOTAL
JHHS	14	19	16	22	71
Red River	12	16	19	22	69

Winnfield 73 JHHS 53 (Friday) Savantez Phillips, Ajay Tew, and Zion Gray all hit three-pointers in the first quarter against their arch rival but it wasn’t nearly enough as Winnfield extended a 19 – 12 lead into a commanding 36-23 lead into intermission and never looked back. Phillips had a second straight strong scoring night with 17 with Tew just one point back at 16 and Gray finishing with 13 but that was all the Tigers, who fell to  7-10 overall and 2-2 in district play, could muster other than 7 points by Jarrius Lumpkin and a basket by Cameron Leonard. Winnfield improved to 16-4 overall and opened their district slate in grand style

TEAM	1	2	3	4	TOTAL
JHHS	12	11	15	15	53
WHS	19	17	16	21	73

Weston 52 FCCS 47 (Tuesday) Hey Jude! Don’t make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better. The lyrics to the classic song by the Beatles couldn’t have said it any better as Jude Otwell scored a career high 16 points to lift Weston to a much needed win after losing four of their first five games in January. The contest was in doubt until the final quarter with the two teams swapping leads each quarter. Thanks to eight points, including a pair of three’s, from Bryce Zehr and baskets by Otwell and Juan Gonzalez, WHS took a 12-9 lead after one. Nathan Wages and Zehr, who added another field goal, canned treys and Otwell added four points in the second but FCCS took a 25-24 lead into the break. WHS regained the lead by a point after three following six points from Otwell, the first four points of the game by Mitchel Mathews and two points each from Zehr, Braden Theriot and Tait Henderson, who also got on the books for the first time in the contest. Four points more each from Mathews, Henderson and Otwell in the final frame sealed the deal as the Weston defense held the homestanding team to just eight.

TEAM	1	2	3	4	TOTAL
Weston	12	12	16	12	52
FCCS	9	16	14	8	47

Choudrant 57 Weston 27 (Friday)Weston scored their first points of the game with 2:14 left in the first quarter. By then homesteading Choudrant was up 12-0. It got worse as the Aggies dominated the paint and the Wolves suffered through their worst shooting night of the season. Juan Gonzalez led the Wolves in scoring with 6 points followed by Braden Theriot adding five. Jude Otwell and Tait Henderson made four each and Mitchel Mathews, Bryce Zehr, Ja’Michael Fourd, and Kason Roberts scored two apiece. Parker Batterton and Michael Jones both finished with 18 to lead Choudrant who had ten players score on the night.

Saline 60 Quitman 49 (Thursday) After the two neighboring parish teams see-sawed their way to leads in the first half, Saline stormed out of the break to outscore the Wolverines 22-8 to take the home win and continue their late-season surge. The fourth straight victory lifted Saline over the .500 mark for the first time all season at 13-12 after starting the year at 1-9. Shawn Staggs led a well-balanced scoring attack with 20 points for Saline followed by Jacob Jones with 14, Wesley Crawford with 12, and D.J. Rager-Ridley adding 10 to give the Bobcats four players in double figures in scoring. Gavon Dailey finished with four. Quitman was led by Logan Ponder with 18 and Eli Walker with 14. Riley Duck, Brayden Smith, and Blake Carter had four each Gavin Caskey scored three and Noah Leach added two for Quitman.   

TEAM	1	2	3	4	TOTAL
Saline	9	19	22	19	60
Quitman	17	10	8	14	49

Choudrant 47 Quitman 40 (Friday) Once again Quitman struggled to score as Choudrant racked up their second straight win in two days against a school from Jackson Parish. Logan Ponder led QHS in scoring with 14 followed by Eli Walker’s 9 points. Blake Carter had 8, Riley Duck 5, Brayden Smith had three and Gavin Caskey made a free throw for the Wolverines who have failed to reach 50 points in a game in four of their last five contests. Batterson and Jones both reached double digits for Choudrant with 18 and 13 respectively.  

TEAM	1	2	3	4	TOTAL
Choudrant	14	10	15	8	47
Quitman	10	11	15	4	40

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