Girls:

COLBERT – The Colbert Lady Leopards cruised to their second victory in two days as they defeated the visiting Achille Lady Eagles 73-35. The Lady Leopards are off to a 3-0 start on the young season and are currently ranked No. 6 in class 2A.

Katherine Hair led the Lady Leopards in scoring with fifteen points and Darian Bradford also finished in double-figures with fourteen points. Ginavee Mowles and Taytania Gray each finished with eight points and Rachel Anders chipped in nine points off the bench.

“I thought it was a good effort tonight,” said Colbert head coach Chris Gillespie. “We played hard and our defense went out and set the tone. We had balanced scoring and our backups got in some good minutes.”

The Lady Leopards jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter and thanks to some quick hands on the defensive end, Colbert finished the quarter on an 8-0 run. Hair and Bradford scored seven points apiece in the opening quarter.

The defensive pressure continued in the second quarter and the Lady Leopards took a 39-17 lead into the locker room.

“We have to improve on dealing with that kind of defense,” said Achille coach Aaron Norton after the game. “We need to be more patient and know how to deal with it if we are going to be a better pressure team.”

The Lady Eagles were unable to mount a serious rally in the second half. Mallory Phelps led the Lady Eagles in scoring with ten points. Cheyenne Crisp finished with seven points and Kayla Loven scored six points.

Anders scored all nine of her points in the fourth quarter for the Lady Leopards.

The Lady Leopards have some time off before their next game which will be on November 27 at home against Byng. The Lady Eagles will travel to Coleman on Thursday night to take on the Lady Wildcats.

Boys:

Austin Beene scored 21 points on Tuesday night as the Achille Eagles held on for a 42-32 victory over the Colbert Leopards. The Eagles were able to fight off a Colbert comeback late in the game thanks to some clutch free-throws down the stretch.

“This is a big win for the school and I’m happy for our kids,” said Achille coach Nick Beene. “This is our first conference road victory in almost five years so I think we changed our image a little with this one.”

After falling behind early in the first quarter, the Leopards finished with a 5-0 scoring run to cut the Achille lead down to two after the first eight minutes.

The Eagles added a little more cushion in the second quarter and outscored the Leopards 13-6 to take a 24-15 lead at halftime.

The Leopards cut the lead to three after a 6-0 run to start the second half. “After the first quarter we got more aggressive offensively and in the second half we had some good ball movement,” said Colbert coach Tony Robinson.

The Leopards trailed by six heading into the fourth quarter but were unable to complete the comeback. Beane scored eight points in the final quarter along with four points from freshman T.J. Childree to close out the victory.

Charles Adams led the way for Colbert with eleven points and Darius Johnson finished with six points.

Childree finished with ten points. Bradley McKnight finished with seven points and Lane Manry scored four points to round out the scoring for Achille.

“We had our backs to the wall and came away with a big win,” said Beene. “We started the regular season 1-3 and were beaten by some good teams. Now we play a good Coleman team in a couple of days and I want us to go out and challenge them.”

The next game on the schedule for the Colbert Leopards will be on November 27 at home against Byng.