Heading into the season, Winona Christian School boys coach Keith Ware said Marshall Academy was the favorite to win the district.
But after a tough 55-51 loss to the Patriots last week, Ware said the district is still up for a grabs.
“It really looks like the district is up for grabs,” Ware said. “I think anybody could win this thing. When you look at the scores, I think we are all pretty even. Carroll is young but we split with them and the district tournament is at their place. But we are playing with a lot of confidence right now.”
The Marshall game was the only contest that Winona got to play last week as Friday’s game at Oak Hill and Saturday’s game at home versus Kirk were all cancelled. Tuesday’s game at Marshall has been called off as well and has been rescheduled for Jan. 29 in place of the Deer Creek game. The Oak Hill game was scheduled to be played on Wednesday but Ware said with all the snow, that game was still in jeopardy.
Winona is scheduled to play Benton at home on Thursday and at Jackson Victors on Friday before returning home to play Central Holmes on Monday, Jan. 22.
“We need to be playing,” Ware said. “We are starting to play pretty good. Marshall is a good team and we led them at half and were down one at the end of the third. We want to be playing but I think everybody in the district is in the same situation that we are in. Everybody is covered up with snow so everybody will be in the same boat.
Against the Patriots, Winona led 16-12 at the end of the first period and led 25-21 at the half. Marshall started to mount a comeback in the second half as they outscored the Stars 17-12 in the third to take a 38-37 lead into the fourth where they used a 17-14 advantage to take the win.
“The fourth quarter was back and fourth until about the two-minute mark,” Ware said. “We got down by five or six and had to start fouling to extend the game. We had cut it to three and got an intentional foul and that put it out of reach for us. But Marshall is a good team. They were averaging about 70 points a game and we held them to 55. We were 5-of-16 from the free throw line so we make a couple of those and who knows what happens.”
Latham Hill led Winona with 21 points while Choyce Diffey had eight points. Zach Bailey scored seven points and Austin Huggins had six points.
The Lady Stars dropped their only game of the week to Marshall. A final score and individual scoring were not made available.
