Poplarville’s basketball teams fall in non-region action
Published 7:00 am Thursday, December 21, 2017
- BUILDING TOWARDS THE FUTURE: Canaan Ray (3) led the Hornets with 16 points but the team came up short of a victory Tuesday night. Photo by Victor Tun
POPLARVILLE — In a non-district matchup, the Hornets fell against Stone High School 72-37 Tuesday night.
Canaan Ray led Poplarville in scoring with 16 points and Taylor Josey contributed 15. Jacob Landry had four points and Torry Polk finished with two.
“Stone has a good team and they’re well-coached and I expect them to make a run in their district,” Poplarville Head Coach Run Bowen said. “With our guys being young and making young mistakes, that’s a tough matchup for us.”
The Tomcats (9-2) jumped to a quick lead early in the game and were able to maintain it. At the end of the first quarter, Stone held an 18-2 lead. Ray, Josey and Landry were able to score a total of 14 points for the Hornets in the second quarter, but the Tomcats continued the momentum they built in the first quarter by scoring 22 points.
In the third quarter, the Hornets (1-5, 1-1 Region 7-4A) scored 11 points, seven of which came from Josey, two from Landry and three from Ray. In the last quarter of the game, Josey contributed with four points and Ray added six.
Poplarville will face Picayune Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Kelly Wise Gymnasium in the first round of the Picayune Christmas Tournament.
“We have been turning the ball over too many times in the last couple of games, so we’ll look at the film and develop a game plan to reduce the number of mistakes,” Bowen said.
—Lady Tomcats 46, Lady Hornets 28: A 30-point second half performance by Stone brought the team to a 46-28 victory over the Lady Hornets Tuesday night. Jasmine Merrill led Poplarville in scoring with 19 points, Monica Raine had five points and Tytiana Buckley finished with four.
After the first quarter, the Lady Hornets (2-6, 0-1 Region 7-4A) trailed Stone by one-point, after three points were scored by Merrill and two points came from Buckley and Raine each. Heading into halftime, Poplarville trailed Stone 16-15, after a seven-point performance from Merrill in the second quarter.
The Lady Tomcats came away with the win after outscoring Poplarville 12-5 in the third quarter and 18-8 in the fourth quarter.
The Lady Hornets will rematch Stone Thursday in the first round of the Picayune Christmas Tournament. Tip-off will be at 5 p.m.