When a 4A school plays a 1A school, the 4A school should win. That is exactly what happened when Attala County rivals Kosciusko and McAdams met at Wilson Jackson Gymnasium on the second day of 2021.Kosciusko won both games, 74-47 for the boys and 60-37 for the girls. Both games followed the same script – close for one quarter before Kosciusko took control.The boys game had four first-quarter lead changes. One came on an acrobatic play by McAdams' Kendarrius McBeath. He drove the baseline and put up a reverse layup that came straight down into the basket – nothing but net.The girls game had four ties and three lead changes in the first quarter.BoysWhippets’ Coach Eleazarus Greenleaf said his team was sluggish at the outset. “I expected them (Bulldogs) to come out and try to bring it to us, and they did in the first half. In the second half we kind of settled down and played our style of defense,” he said.Defense is what Greenleaf constantly preaches.Kosciusko led by a single point, 11-10, in the final minute of the first quarter. But three-point baskets by Davion Roby and JaQuan Hall made it 17-10 at the end of the period. The Whippets increased the lead to 33-21 at the half and 59-31 through three quarters.Antonio Harmon had a game-high 18 points for Kosciusko, 12 in the third quarter, along with eight rebounds and two steals. “He's our spark off the bench, he along with Jaden Collins,” Greenleaf said. “We can get out and run a little more with those two in the game. It's great to have the luxury of those two on the team.”Hall had 13 points, 12 rebounds and five assists and Azikwe' Mays 10 points for the Whippets. Cameron Fleming led McAdams with 16 points. McBeath and Jaylan Perteet had nine each.“We didn’t play well,” said McAdams Coach Kenyon Ross. “We just have to get better.”Greenleaf said the intensity between the teams was high. “It’s a rivalry game. Nobody wants to lose a rivalry game,” he said.GirlsIt was 11-11 after one quarter before Kosciusko ran off 10 straight points in the first two minutes of the second, including a three-pointer by Ariel Fleming and baskets by Mariah Woods an Aaliyah Amey, McAdams responded by scoring seven straight points – five by Moleyia Harmon – to pull within 21-18 before Kosciusko ended the half on a 10-3 run for a 31-21 lead. The Lady Whippets stretched the lead to 50-32 after three quarters.“Fouls played a big part of the game,” said McAdams Coach Ashley Brown. “At the beginning, we played very aggressively. The five starters and a couple who came off the bench were in foul trouble, so I was playing a lot of young girls. I have reminded the older girls that they have to set a tone. If they go out there and motivate them, the younger girls will do the same.”The Lady Bulldogs were whistled for 30 fouls, but Kosciusko made only 19 of 42 from the free throw line. “We have to make those free throws. We missed 20-something free throws and we missed five or six layups,” said Kosciusko Coach Cory Guyton. “We hadn’t played in a couple of weeks, so I assume it was rustiness. I thought toward the end we played pretty well. We got into our rhythm.”Amey led Kosciusko with 17 points, 15 rebounds and five steals. Fleming had 14 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals and Haley Olive nine points, five steals and four rebounds.It was the first game as a starter for Olive, a freshman, at point guard. “She did a really good job with the pressure and the hype of playing a rivalry,” Guyton said. “She made a few mistakes, but overall I think she ran the team well.”Harmon led McAdams with nine points.McAdams played Yazoo County earlier in the week, a 56-45 victory for the boys and a 51-20 loss by the girls. For the Bulldogs, it was a major reversal from a week earlier when McAdams was defeated by Yazoo County 58-34. Ross said it was his team’s best game of the season “bar none.” The difference, he said, was having multiple players in double figures. Perteet had 17 points, McBeath 16 and Fleming 14. “If you look at the games we lost, we normally had one guy in double figures. If you look at the games we won, we had three guys in double figures,” he said.Kosciusko and McAdams began region play Tuesday. Kosciusko played Choctaw Central and has home games Friday with Louisville in 4-4A.McAdams played West Lowndes, the 5-1A defending champion for both boys and girls. The Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs will be at Nanih Waiya Friday and have non-region home games with Philadelphia Saturday.
