It was a good week for the Winona boys basketball team, but not for the girls team. The Tigers defeated Ethel 57-45 and French Camp 53-44. The girls lost both games, 43-6 against Ethel and 55-32 to French Camp.
Senior Da'Karrian Crawford had a career high 15 points on six of 10 shooting against Ethel, drawing praise from coach Presley Coleman.
“He stepped it up. He played hard and was very aggressive offensively going to the rim. This is his third year playing for me. He has always worked hard. He's the type of kid who is always at the gym. He's coachable and does whatever I ask him to do. I'm glad to see him have a big game with all his hard work paying off.”
Crawford's previous best was 13 points last year in a 77-70 victory over J.Z. George when he made all six shots from the floor.
James Shelton had 10 points, Kaleb Rush nine points and Damaiya Mister eight points and nine rebounds.
Winona jumped out to a 12-4 first quarter lead against French Camp, but the Panthers trailed by only four points in the fourth quarter before Winona pulled away behind Jalen Daniels, who had a game high 17 points.
Coleman said the Tigers did not play as well as in an earlier 60-26 win over French Camp. “The old coach's quote is that it's always hard to beat a team the second time in the season. We beat them handily at French Camp. I felt like we were just going through the motions Friday night. We weren't playing as hard as we are capable of playing,”
But he added “An ugly win is better than a pretty loss any day.”
Tyra Weathersby scored 16 points for the Lady Tigers against French Camp. Jordan Carter had 18 points and 15 rebounds for the Lady Panthers.
“They played a lot better than us,” said Winona coach Frank Miller. “They took it to us and we didn't respond. They kept it up for four quarters.
Winona won an earlier matchup with French Camp 38-36.
The Lady Tigers’ 2018-19 final record was reported incorrectly in the preseason basketball special section. The correct record was 15-13.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers have road games with Grenada Friday, the last games before the new year.
Games scheduled for Monday at Coffeeville were postponed for the second time and rescheduled for the next day due to the threat of severe weather.
