Atrocious shooting and a seeming inability to grab rebounds cost the Stone High boys’ basketball team dearly Monday night.
The Tomcats shot an anemic 12-of-43 from the field and fell 63-43 to a Moss Point team which will move on to this weekend’s South State tournament.
The majority of Stone’s 20 fourth-quarter points came after the Tigers had built an insurmountable lead and made wholesale substitutions.
“It was a shock,” Stone coach Todd Miller said. “(The team) responded well last night in practice and we thought we had them ready then we came out and couldn’t buy a basket.”
Miller credited the Moss Point zone defense with forcing the Tomcats (14-12) to do something they’d had trouble with all season, shoot from long range.
“They did what they needed to do, they stayed in that 2-3 zone and dared us to shoot and we’re just not that good of an outside shooting team,” he said.
The Tomcats missed their first seven 3-point attempts before Travis Burdick finally nailed one with 1:53 remaining in the first quarter. It was just the second field goal of the game for Stone, which didn’t get on the board until
Clint Hatten hit a short shot with nearly three minutes elapsed off the clock.
Lee Redeemer led Stone with 12 points while Scott Thames added 10.
Jarel Shelby, who led the Tomcats with 15.3 points-per-game this season, picked up three first-quarter fouls and was ultimately held to three points.
The loss was the second straight for Stone, which fell 85-62 to Wayne County in the Region 6-5A championship Saturday at Picayune.
The Tomcats made it to the title game against the War Eagles with an impressive 76-71 over host Picayune last Tuesday.
VERSUS PICAYUNE
Shelby scored 26 points, Tyree McDonald added 18 and Thames contributed 12 as Stone put up nearly as many points on free throws (40) against the Maroon Tide as it did total points against Moss Point.
Miller instituted a box-and-one zone defense with the sole purpose of shutting down the Maroon Tide’s senior guard Vincent Gable.
Gable had averaged 18 points in a pair of district victories over the Tomcats.
“I was running four different defenders in and out and their only job was to keep him from scoring,” Miller said. “I told them to not worry about scoring, but to concentrate on not letting him score.”
The strategy allowed Stone to hold Gable to just 11 points.
Picayune coach Tom Taylor said the Tomcats had executed Miller’s defense to near perfection.
“He (Miller) did a great job of getting them ready and they did a great job of playing that defense,” he said.
VERSUS WAYNE COUNTY
The Tomcats ran into a veritable buzz saw in a War Eagles team which entered the contest with a 21-2 record.
Stone had a difficult time maintaining possession of the ball as the War Eagles ran up a nine-point lead after one quarter and stretched it to 17 at the half.
“We had way too many turnovers to compete with a team like that,” Miller said.
Four players scored in double figures for Wayne County, led by Rayford Worsham and Jarvis Henry, who each tallied 18.
McDonald paced the Tomcats with 14, Shelby added 13 and Ashley Breland scored 12.
