By By Rocky Higginbotham/The Meridian Star
Jan. 14, 2001
Kemper County's boys had already locked up the title of the 2001 Sam Dale/Walter Ethridge Memorial Tournament before they hit the court to take on Enterprise Saturday afternoon.
But if the Wildcats expected the Bulldogs who were 0-2 in the tourney to roll over, they got quite the surprise.
Enterprise, despite a dismal start, rallied to give Kemper all it wanted before falling 61-58.
Kemper's win improved the Wildcats to 15-8 and gave veteran head coach Charles Jackson his seventh Sam Dale title.
Enterprise fell to 7-11.
Saturday's other boys' game saw homestanding Northeast Lauderdale explode in the third quarter en route to a 79-63 win over cross-county rival Southeast.
Kemper County boys 61, Enterprise 58: The Wildcats scored the first eight points of the game to force first-year Enterprise coach Mark Davis into a timeout.
His Bulldogs promptly responded, getting a trio of 3-pointers during a 17-2 run that put them up 17-10 early in the second period.
Kemper scored the next 11 points and carried a 24-21 lead into the locker room, but the Wildcats couldn't shake the Bulldogs.
Enterprise hit 3-pointers on four straight trips down the floor two of them by Corey Boggan late in the third quarter to pull within 43-42. But Kemper's RonTerrian Dale slammed home the putback of a teammate's miss, shifting the momentum back to the Wildcats.
Four times in the final period, Enterprise cut its deficit to just two points. But each time, Kemper answered, getting four straight free throws from James Moore and two from Kenny Boyd to keep the Dogs at bay.
Moore hit 1-of-2 freebies with 10.3 seconds remaining to give Kemper a 61-58 advantage, then Derrick Boyd knocked the ball away from Enterprise and Moore ran out the clock to seal the win.
Moore finished with 10 points, nine rebounds and five assists, while Kenny Boyd had 24 points and 16 rebounds to lead Kemper County. Chris Davis added 10 points, Derrick Boyd grabbed 10 rebounds and Terrance Westerfield scored seven points.
Boggan pumped in a game-high 28 points, nailing six 3-pointers to lead Enterprise. Burrell Gandy added 11 points and six boards, Mitchell Burns had eight points, six rebounds and six assists and Bryan Bester had seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Northeast Lauderdale boys 79, Southeast Lauderdale 63: The Tigers started red-hot and appeared to be on their way to their second straight win.
Southeast built a 10-point edge in the opening minutes before Northeast rallied for a 38-37 lead at halftime.
The Trojans continued to pour it on in the third quarter, when Jamaal Martin hit back-to-back 3-pointers during a 13-4 run to put Northeast ahead 50-41 and force Tiger head man Ryan Miller into a timeout.
Northeast scored 31 points before the quarter was over, taking a comfortable 20-point edge into the final period.
Jimmy Kelly led the Trojans with 19 points, while Martin had 16. Stephen Dyess scored 14, Marcus Betts 12 and Dekenno Winston chipped in six.
Anthony Horner led Southeast with 20 points, while Doug Rowe scored 15. Jonathan Russell and Lapatrick Carlisle each had 11 and Ben Reed six.
Rocky Higginbotham is the sports editor of The Meridian Star. E-mail him at rhigginbotham@themeridianstar.com.