By By Austin Bishop/Special to The Star
The Raiders of Lamar High School used a big advantage on the boards and a hot streak at the beginning of the third and beginning of the fourth quarters to take a 59-45 non-division win over East Rankin Academy on Monday night.
The girls game saw ERA turn a 24-7 halftime lead into a convincing 49-24 win
The Lamar boys, now 4-2 on the year, led 35-33 with under two minutes to play in the third quarter. Dusty Jones hit a big three-pointer with 1:24 to go in the quarter and Ryan Satcher knocked down a 15-footer at the buzzer to put the winners up 40-33. Jones then hit another three just 25 seconds into the fourth quarter to put LHS up by 10.
Lamar trailed only once in the second half, that coming when ERA scored the first basket of the third quarter to go up 29-28. The Raiders led by seven or more the entire fourth quarter and never was really threatened during the last eight minutes of play.
Lamar jumped out to an 8-3 early lead, grabbing 13 of the game's first 15 rebounds. The Raiders outrebounded the 1-4 Patriots 38-21 for the game.
East Rankin came back to take a 12-11 lead, only to have Jones hit a three-pointer with 20 seconds left to put the winners up 14-12 at the end of the first quarter of play.
The Raiders trailed 27-25 with less than 10 seconds to play in the half, but used a strange play to take the lead at the half at 28-27.
Cooper Huff hit a free throw to cut it to 27-26 with five seconds left. Then on the throw it, Satcher deflected the ball, with Huff picking it off and firing up an off-balance eight-footer that found the net with one second left in the half.
Jared McKee led Lamar with 19 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots, while Jones hit for 17 points. Sam Eakes added 10 rebounds for the winners, while Cooper Huff scored nine points.
Lee Beard hit on a trio of three-pointers to lead East Rankin with 17 points.
Next up for the Raiders and Lady Raiders is a road trip to Leake Academy a week from today.
ERA girls 49, Lamar 24: The Lady Raiders trailed just 8-7 at the end of the first quarter, but the Lady Patriots outscored Lamar 16-0 in the second quarter to take a 24-7 lead at the half.
Libby Huff led Lamar with 17 points on the night, while the Lady Raiders fell to 1-5 on the season.
Austin Bishop is a sports correspondent for The Meridian Star. E-mail him at sports@meridianstar.com.