By By Jeff Byrd/sports editor
January 4, 2003
One of the top teams on the Gulf Coast had to battle a much improved Scott Central girls team on Friday afternoon at the Enterprise New Year's Tournament.
Long Beach High School made the plays late to beat Scott Central 53-48. The Lady Bearcats improved to 15-1 on the season.
Scott Central fell to 0-2 in the six-team tournament and is now 7-11 on the year.
Long Beach led 32-21 at the half. Scott Central made it 41-32 at the end of three quarters.
The Lady Rebels cut it further getting to within five points at 48-43. Long Beach responded getting baskets off its half-court offense from Latoya Gibson and Markeil Bradford to go up nine with a minute to play.
Carson led Long Beach with 23 points. The 5-10 senior is a top recruit in the coast region. Mari Kenney had 10 points and senior point guard Marcie Levens chipped in nine points.
Elyse Clay led Scott Central with a game high 27 points. She had 19 points in the second half including 10 in the final quarter.
Long Beach went on to play 12-3 Southeast Lauderdale later Friday. The winner of that contest advances to Saturday's championship game against either Stringer, Clarkdale or Enterprise.
Scott Central boys 83
Long Beach 68
Scott Central evened its record in the Enterprise New Year's Tournament at 1-1 after beating 5A Long Beach 83-68 on Friday afternoon in Enterprise.
Scott Central will play for the third place consolation game against the loser of Friday's Clarkdale-Stringer contest today at 4:30 p.m.
Long Beach played Southeast later on Friday evening.
Pierre Barlow pumped in 33 points and Roderick Loper had 30 to lead Scott Central. Loper scored 10 in the fourth quarter after the visiting Bearcats had pulled to within nine points.
The Rebels led 50-33 at the half and 62-48 after three quarters.
Long Beach, now 4-9, was led by Scott Watkins with 13 points and Xavier Mitchell chipped in 12.
Kemper Co. girls 55
W. Lowndes 50
The Kemper County girls evened its record at 6-6 at the East Oktibbeha High School Tournament on Thursday night.
Kemper defeated West Lowndes 55-50 in the first round. Melodie Nave had 17 points for Kemper County. Monique Mosley had 16 points and Erica White chipped in 10.
West Lowndes was led by Heather Benson with 28 points.
Kemper trailed 21-19 at the half but used a 19-12 third quarter to go up 38-31 heading into the fourth quarter.
W. Lowndes boys 84
Kemper Co. 79
West Lowndes got 26 points from Rashard Thompson and 24 from Charles Brewer to edge Kemper County 84-79 on Thursday in the East Oktibbeha Tournament.
The loss drops the Wildcats to 7-9 on the season.
Terrance Westerfield led Kemper County with 22 points and 12 rebounds. Omarion Backstrom had 13 points and 12 boards. Gary Griffin added 15 points and nine rebounds.
Rodricus Hopson chipped in 12 points.