The season ended for the Winona boys and girls basketball teams with losses in the opening round of the Region 5-3A basketball tournament played at Southeast Lauderdale. The boys lost to Forest 72-55 and the girls were edged by Kemper County 37-34.
The Tigers trailed 13-11 after one quarter, 34-23 at the half and were never able to mount a comeback in the second half. “We were not able to close the gap to less than 10 points,” said coach Presley Coleman.
Sean Merritt scored 19 points for Winona and Dre Bays had 15.
“Dre and Sean had big games,” Coleman said. “I was also impressed by DaKarrian Crawford. He came off the bench and gave us good minutes.” Crawford scored eight points.
The Tigers closed out the regular season with losses to Morton 44-38 and Southeast Lauderdale 73-25.
“In the Morton game, we jumped out to a 13-3 lead and we actually led late in the game,” Coleman said. “But we had a costly turnover. They converted on it and we ended up losing by six.”
Merritt and Robert McMath had eight points each against Morton and James Shelton scored seven. Freshmen Dennis Turner and Mykel McGee led the Tigers against Southeast Lauderdale with six points each.
“In the Morton game and last night (Forest), the effort was there. We played hard,” Coleman said. “It was just execution that ended up costing us. With a young team, it’s a work in progress.”
Lady Tigers
It was a heartbreaking end of the season for the Lady Tigers. Winona led Kemper County 34-33 and had possession with less than a minute to play.
“We ran a side out of bounds for a run out layup, but missed it,” said coach Frank Miller.
After Kemper County scored to take the lead, Winona had two more possessions, but failed to score.
“We played hard, but our lack of offense at times really took its toll on us,” Miller said.
The Lady Tigers defeated Morton a 44-31 in a regular season game. “We got behind early, but dominated the second half, holding them to only nine second half points.” Miller said.
