By Laurence Hilliard
McAdams girls basketball advanced to the second round of the 1A playoffs with a 55-30 victory over South Delta Monday. The Lady Bulldogs will play at West Lincoln in Brookhaven Friday with a 6 p.m. tipoff.
“We played okay the first half,” said coach Kenyon Ross. “The second half we took our foot of the gas and that will eventually hurt us.”
He said the victory was a team effort. “We got contributions from everyone. One girl (Caitlyn Landfair) came off the bench and stepped up.”
It was a strong bounce back after McAdams was defeated by Sebastopol 67-25 in the Region 5-1A championship game. The Lady Bulldogs entered the region tournament as the top seed with a 9-1 record, including two wins over Sebastopol, and reached the title game with a 48-34 victory over Leake County.
But McAdams could not handle the pressure from Sebastopol. “The moment weas too big,” Ross said.
McAdams led 1-0 on a free throw by Taliah Gadson, but Sebastopol scored the next seven points, led 19-8 after one quarter and kept pulling away.
Senior guard Lake Musgrove scored 23 for Sebastopol, which defeated Riverside 54-31 in the opening round of the playoffs.
West Lincoln is a long-time small school power in girls basketball with seven straight 20-plus win seasons. This year’s team is 25-4, including 10-0 in Region 7-1A and a 60-15 victory over Stringer to open the playoffs.
West Lincoln dropped down from 2A this season and has been dominant the second half of the season, including 7-1A tournament wins 65-19 against Mississippi School for the Deaf and 50-14 against Bogue Chitto.
Ross said West Lincoln is a well-coached team that plays good defense. During the 14-game winning streak West Lincoln has held teams to an average of 20 points.
Boys
The Bulldogs began the playoffs Tuesday with a home game against West Bolivar. At the 5-1A tournament McAdams defeated Ethel 84-55 and lost to Leake County 68-52 in the title game.
The 29-point victory over Ethel came only four days after a 49-45 win over Ethel to end the regular season.
The championship game was close for a half, with eight lead changes in the first half. The Bulldogs took their last lead, 23-22, on a basket by Caden Smith that ended a 9-2 run by McAdams. Leake County responded by outscoring the Bulldogs 13-4 to finish the half with a 35-27 lead. Ja’Quailyn Pippen scored the Gators’ final seven points of the half. He was 10 of 11 from the floor ad scored 21 points.
A basket by Joshua Atterberry at the start of the third quarter pulled the Bulldogs within six, but they couldn’t get any closer as Leake County stretched the lead to 55-40 entering the fourth quarter.
McAdams lost all three games to Leake County but was 9-0 against the other four region opponents, Ethel, Nanih Waiya, Noxapater and Sebastopol. Joshua Atterberry and Gavin Brown both scored 16 points in the game against Leake County.
All district and all tournament honors were handed out after the game. Smith, Omari Williams and Darrin Fleming were all district, Atterberry and Gavin Brown all tournament.
