The Montgomery County High School boys entered the MHSAA Region 5-1A Tournament Tuesday with a four-game losing streak after dropping games to Coffeeville 80-50 and Durant 67-62. The losing streak dropped the Hornets from region leader to the fourth seed in the six-team region tournament.
Montgomery County opened the tournament at Coffeeville with a game against Ethel Tuesday. The winner plays top seed McAdams at 5:30 Thursday.
What will it take for the Hornets to turn it around in the tournament? “Better play, better attitude and everyone has to get involved doing something to help the team,” said Coach Frank Miller.
Coffeeville led Montgomery County 21-10 after the first quarter on its way to an easy win behind 28 points by Sam Spearman. “We barely even showed up,” Miller said. “They outplayed us, outhustled us, out rebounded us, outshot us and anything else you can think of they did better than us.”
For the Hornets, Decoreyon Small had 25 points and Katicion Winfrey scored 14.
Against Durant, Montgomery County battled back from a 10-point third quarter deficit to lead by one with two minute left. But missed free throws in the final minute and a half doomed the Hornets.
Small had 22 points, Deterrious Williams 13 and Winfrey nine.
“That's about all we had. It was like we were playing three against five,” Miller said.
The tournament consolation and championship games will be played Friday at 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The top four teams advance to the MHSAA playoffs, with the winner and runner-up earning home court for the first round.
Lady Hornets
It would not be an overstatement to say the Montgomery County girls basketball team shot poorly in its last two regular season games. The Lady Hornets made only 19 of 105 shots in losing to Coffeeville 38-31 and Durant 61-25.
“We didn't shoot well in either of those games,” said Coach Jeremy Robinson. “It seems we haven't been shooting well in the second half of the season.”
Montgomery County was 12 of 58 against Coffeeville. The one bright spot was Arkeveah Gayden, who made five of eight shots and scored a team high 13 points.
“Coffeeville has a real scrappy team. They come out you real hard,” Robinson said.
Montgomery County and Coffeeville split their two regular season games. They met for a third time Tuesday in the opening round of the 5-1A tournament at Coffeeville. The winner of that game plays top seed Durant in the semifinals at 4 pm. Thursday.
“Durant is just a powerhouse,” Robinson said. “They have three good scorers who are really consistent. They are a very well rounded team.”
Durant is the state's third ranked 1A team according to the website MaxPreps.
Durant led Montgomery County 19-2 after one quarter on its way to an easy win. Tatylana Womach and Tatyana Kenney each scored seven points for the Lady Hornets. Jasmine Salley was the team's leading rebounder with six.
Montgomery County finished the regular season 14-11 and 4-6 in the region.
