Kosciusko split a pair of games against Morton and Ridgeland to improve to 10-2 this season.
The Whippets defeated the Panthers 62-46 last Tuesday and fell 62-59 against the Titans in late-week action.
“Against Morton, we kind of struggled in the first half, and in the second half we locked in defensively and we ended up pulling away,” Kosciusko coach Eleazarus Greenleaf said. “We had some key stops in the third quarter and kind of went on a run which put the game away.”
O’Corya Forrest, who has been a consistent source of offense this year for Kosciusko, again paced the Whippets in their hard-fought contest against Morton. The senior was 7 of 13 in field goal attempts and finished with a team-high 22 points. Forrest made 4 of his 10 3-point attempts to go with four rebounds and three steals.
Antonio Harmon ended the contest with nine points and a team-high eight rebounds.
The Whippets as a team were 10-for-14 on free throw attempts.
“Those two, they kind of led the way as far as scoring,” Greenleaf said of Forrest and Harmon. “From a defensive standpoint, we locked in and we locked down as a team.”
After ending the first quarter with the score at 15, Kosciusko outscored Morton 11-10 in the second period to take a 26-25 lead into intermission. The Whippets tallied 20 points in the third quarter and 16 points in the final period to grab the win.
Ridgeland used a late-game 3-pointer to pull ahead from Kosciusko and earn a victory last Friday.
Harmon had a team-high 17 points to go with seven rebounds, three assists and two steals. Terry Skinner tallied 15 points and one rebound, and Forrest ended with 12 points and two rebounds.
“We led the whole way, and toward the end, Ridgeland kind of got back in it,” Greenleaf said. “We got into a little bit of foul trouble down the stretch. They came down with about 10 seconds left on the clock and hit the game-winning 3-point shot. It was a good game all around against a 5A school. We need to play that kind of competition as we try to get deep into the playoffs so we’ll be familiar with those type of games. We took away from that game a learning experience: We have to make free throws down the stretch in close games… I think overall the team played well.”
Kosciusko hosts Leake County on Tuesday before traveling to Leflore County on Thursday. On Saturday, Kosciusko will play Minor (Alabama) in Columbus as part of the Joe Horn Classic.
LADY WHIPPETS
The Kosciusko girls used efficient shooting to lift themselves over Morton 60-35 last Tuesday, as the team went 25 of 51 from the field to pick up their seventh win of the season.
“Morton was probably one of our best shooting games that we’ve had,” Kosciusko coach Cory Guyton said. “We shot the ball pretty well against Morton, and our defense, I believe, was the deciding factor in that to get our offense going. We got a lot of good shots out of transition, we shot the ball a little bit in transition. Our defense is our main foundation throughout the whole year. If our defense is going, it kind of sparks the offense.”
Amiyah Greer was 6 of 7 for 14 points; Kayla Davis was 5 of 6 for 12 points. Davis also tallied a team-high six rebounds and another team-high five steals, and she was awarded Kosciusko’s game ball for her performance.
Morton’s Makiya Sparkman led her team with 10 points, and Kendell Morgan contributed with seven points.
Kosciusko won the rebound advantage 31 to 7.
Last Friday, Ridgeland led Kosciusko by just five points with two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but untimely turnovers by the Lady Whippets resulted in Kosciusko taking a 43-31 loss against their MHSAA Class 5A opponent.
The Lady Titans carried three players over 6-feet tall on their roster, which posed challenging matchup issues for the Lady Whippets.
“We were a little short-handed with five, and Ridgeland was really big,” Guyton said. “We just ran into somebody a little bit bigger than we were. We couldn’t get the ball inside like we wanted to, and we got kind of stagnant on our offense, and it trickled down from there.”
The Lady Whippets were without starter Kayla Davis, as she recovered from an illness, and Jakalya Seawood, who was unavailable due to a knee injury.
Greer had 12 points, four rebounds, one assist and four steals, and for the second consecutive game, she earned Kosciusko’s game ball. Katie Mitchell tallied nine points, one rebound, one assist and one steal.
Kosciusko hosts Leake County on Tuesday and visits Leflore County on Thursday.
