By By Marty Stamper/The Meridian Star
Dec. 8, 2000
LOUISVILLE For the girls' teams from Choctaw Central and Louisville, Thursday night offered the blowout special in the annual Louisville Wildcat Classic. Choctaw Central ripped Durant 94-61 and Louisville hammered Kosciusko 60-24.
On the boys' side, Louisville held off Kosciusko 55-50, while Choctaw Central lost 82-70 to Durant.
Today's games have Choctaw Central taking on Kosciusko in the 4:30 p.m. and 5:45 contests. Louisville faces Durant in the 7 and 8:15 matchups.
Choctaw Central girls 94, Durant 61: Both the Choctaw Central and Durant girls have had much success in the past six years with the Lady Warriors winning three state championships in Class 2A and the Lady Tigers winning two state crowns and finishing runner-up on two occasions in Class 1A.
But even with three starters out, the Lady Warriors cruised to a 33-point win over the defending 1A state runner-up in Thursday's early game.
Fourteen Lady Warriors scored for Willis Tullos' 7-1 squad.
The Lady Warriors led 21-6 after one quarter and took a 38-20 lead into halftime. By the end of the third period, Choctaw's lead was 64-38.
Junior forward Shavon Willis led the Lady Warriors with 27 points, 12 coming from 3-point range. Senior guard Ferne Denson also hit four 3s in racking up 20 points. Chantay Frazier added 11 and Deaundrea Johnson scored seven.
Ashley Howard led Durant, 0-2, with 29 points, 24 of which came in the second half. Amanda Hood added 10.
Durant boys 82, Choctaw Central 70: Playing just their second game due to a long football season that saw Durant reach the Class 1A state championship game, the Tigers outscored the Warriors from two to four points in all four quarters to claim the 12-point win.
Durant (1-1), led 19-17 after one quarter, took a 35-31 advantage into halftime, and carried a 59-51 lead into the fourth quarter.
Williams-Sullivan transfer Detrius Roberson led Durant with 25 points. Jermaine Winters scored 22, Michael Thomas had 18, and Baron Roundtree added 10. The Tigers' only previous game was a four-point loss to Starkville.
Choctaw fell to 1-6. The Warriors got 14 points from Giovann Dixon, 13 from Jason Shumake, 10 from Kensie Henry, eight from Beasley Willis, and seven each from Anslem Henry and Stanley Johnson.
Louisville girls 60, Kosciusko 24: Sheila Hickman's Lady Wildcats jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first three-and-a-half minutes of their win and kept adding to it as they improved to 7-2.
Louisville led 20-9 after one quarter, outscored the Lady Whippets 10-2 in the second period, and was leading 43-16 by the time the fourth quarter rolled around.
Louisville got 18 points from senior Nikki Yarbrough, 16 from senior Shaneaka Cistrunk, 10 from sophomore Brittany Triplett, nine from senior Shenita Ford, and six from freshman Dee Forrest.
Kosciusko, 1-7, got eight points from Chandra Terry and six from Marketta Roby.
Louisville boys 55, Kosciusko 50: D'Andre Hardin made 5-of-6 free throws in the final 47 seconds as the Wildcats held off the Whippets to improve to 6-4.
Louisville expanded an 11-8 first quarter lead into a 31-18 halftime advantage. Kosciusko used an 18-10 advantage in the third period to open the final stanza down only 41-36.
The Wildcats were up 50-43 with 2:25 remaining, but a basket from Chris Hall pulled the Whippets to within 50-47 with 1:35 left.
Hardin then sealed the win with his free throws.
Hardin led Louisville with 14 points. Andrae Sims scored 11, Marquess Ledbetter had eight, and B.J. Grace added six.
Tim Alford led Kosciusko, 7-3, with 22 points. Robert Harmon scored 14.
Marty Stamper is a sports correspondent for the Meridian Star. Email him at sports@themeridianstar.com.