It was “break out the broom” time for area high schools in the Jackson Parish Journal coverage area during the latter part of the past week. For Quitman and Saline High Schools, the “sweeps” were on the positive side as both the girls and boys squads won their contests. For JHHS and Weston High School, they would have liked it better if the brooms had stayed in the closet.
Quitman wins District 1B Openers
Both the girls and boys teams set new team season standards in the District 1B opening wins over Doyline, with the girls holding Doyline to a new defensive points allowed mark in the 46-11 victory, and the boys scored their most points of the year in the 97-80 win. With the “double-dip,” the Lady Wolverines’ fourth game in the last five to improve to 14-7 on the year, while the QHS boys stretched their winning streak to 12 in a row to up their season mark to 16-4, which gives the Wolverines a #4 ranking in Class B.
Quitman 97 Doyline 80 (boys): Three players topped the 20-point mark, led by Brayden Martin with 28 points. Close behind were Taden Thomas with 26 points and Brayden Smith, who had a “double-double” with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Abel Leach chipped in with 9 points and 10 boards, and Asher Schultz added 8 points. Shane Reed also scored 4 points to round out the scoring, where the two teams combined for 177 points, one of the highest combined point totals in north Louisiana this year.
Quitman 62 Doyline 11 (girls): A new season high, 14 players scored as head coach Kyle Leach emptied his bench after the Lady Wolverines scored the first 13 points of the game, which led to a 51-7 advantage at the end of three quarters. Hallie Kate Pullig led the way with 10 points, followed closely behind by Anna Claire Leach and Allie Robertson, who scored 8 points each, bolstered by a pair of three pointers. Emma Walker scored 7, Kalisa Hall added six, and Taylor Borland scored four points. Lily Jones made her first three-pointer of the season, and Keely Davis equaled her season high with three points. Avery Halsey scored her first two points of the year, while Sophia Kleibert, Ella Simonelli, Breelyn Boone and Kinsley Ponder all added a basket each.
JHHS Loses Pair to Mangham
In their next-to-last games before district 1-1A play begins, both the Jonesboro-Hodge girls and boys fell to visiting Mangham, with the Lady Tigers falling 61-36 and J-H boys losing by a 64-38 margin. With their 3rd loss in a row, the JH girls saw their season record drop to 9-13 and their power ranking dip to #21 in Division IV among “non-select” schools. For the Tigers, who fell to 3-17 on the year, it was their fourth loss in a row and 9th in the last 10 games.
Mangham 64 JHHS 38 (boys): After JHHS played Mangham close to a 25-21 deficit after two quarters of play, the Dragons outscored the Tigers 39-17 in the second half to run away with the easy victory. King Campbell and Dylan Hayes led JHHS in scoring with 12 and 10 points, respectively, while Jaquan Qualls finished with 9 points. Derrimie Malone finished with five and Gregory Howard added a basket.
Mangham 61 JHHS 36 (girls): Playing their third straight game against schools with a winning record resulted in three losses in a row after five straight victories, as the Lady Tigers continued to struggle to find points. Neesha Johnson led JHHS with 13 points, while Samone Mallard had 9 and both Sanaa Tatum and Jalenya Jackson had 8 points each as only four Lady Tigers scored in the contest.
Weston Winless in Bossier City
The longest road trip of the year proved to be a tough one for Weston as both the girls and boys teams fell to Providence Classical Academy on Thursday, with the girls losing 47-35 and the boys losing a heartbreaker by a 50-49 margin. With the pair of defeats, the Lady Wolves saw their record drop to 13-8 while the WHS boys saw their two game winning streak go to the wayside and fall to 9-13 on the year.
PCA 50 Weston 49 OT(boys): Colton Otwell gave Weston a 49-47 late lead, but after a timeout, Providence Classical Academy made a three-pointer as time was winding down to steal the victory in the Wolves first overtime game of the year. After being behind 13-10 after the first period and 23-22 at the half, the Wolves took a 34-27 lead heading into the fourth quarter, which ended with the two teams tied at 44 apiece.
PCA 47 Weston 35 (girls): Despite winning the 4th quarter by a 16-11 margin, scoring troubles early turned out to be too big a hill to climb as Weston managed only 19 points in the first three quarters, which was the same number of points Providence Classical Academy scored in the third quarter alone. Kate Keiffer scored 12 points and Gracie Gray added 9 on the night that the Lady Wolves hit only 12 of 45 shots (27%) and missed all five of their 3-point attempts. Teegan Hall finished with 7 points while Rachel Bandy, Carlynn Waters, and Carly Jo Griffin all scored two points each. Ada Claire Tidwell hit a free throw to round out Weston’s scoring.
Saline Sweeps Georgetown
In a battle of two of the 4th and 5th-ranked teams in Class C, Saline was the host with the most in the 56-43 victory that stretched the winning streak to a season best four games and improved the Bobcats record to 15-10 while saddling Georgetown with just their 4th loss in 24 games. The Lady Bobcats also set a new season best winning streak at three straight and climbed above the .500 mark with a 13-12 record by turning in a season best defensive performance in the 47-16 victory. It was the “dynamic duo” of Eli Ferguson and Gavin Dailey, both of whom have eclipsed the 1000 career point barrier in the past couple of weeks, who led the Bobcats in scoring with 18 and 17 points, respectively. Jackson Bougues also came up big with 8 points, Hayden Laborde added 6, and both Conner Roberts and Elijah Calloway finished with three points apiece. Brayden Robinson sank a free throw to round out the scoring for Saline, which is now #4 in the Class C power rankings. No individual scoring was submitted for the Lady Bobcats.
Local Elementary Action
Quitman 18 JHES 6 (girls): Lily Tolar scored 10 points, and Savannah Porter added 8 as Quitman Elementary won for the fourth time in six games. D’Allyua Boston and Addison Evans scored two points each, and both Ava Palmer and Jonnailah Anderson sank a free throw for Jonesboro-Hodge, which fell to 0-3 on the season, having lost twice to Quitman and once to Weston Elementary.
Quitman 47 JHES 11 (boys): Bently Ponder poured in 18 points to lead QES to their 6th straight victory to start the season. Sutton Vail chipped in with 8 points and both Andrew Seymore and Koplen Taylor finished with 6 points each. Ja’Mikal Hall scored 5 points while Clay Burton and Jaycob Rogers tallied two points apiece. Messiah Beard paced the JHES scoring attack with 4 points followed closely behind by Noah Martin who finished with three points. Bryce Martin and Carson Knox scored two points each for the Tiger Cubs who fell for the third time in three games.