Published: November 20, 2007 02:44 pm            

Newton girls smash 5A Starkville

NEWTON — Newton basketball coach Crandal Porter has been begging, pleading, complaining, shouting, encouraging or anything else he could think of to get his Lady Tiger basketball team to play with a little more effort.

He finally got some of that last week and the result was a convincing 73-60 win over Class 5A Starkvile Saturday night.

The Lady Tigers are now 2-3 on the season and will travel to Choctaw Central on Tuesday night. After the Thanksgiving break, Newton will participate in the East Central tournament.

“We are starting to see some improvement,” Porter said. “We still have got a lot of things we are going to have to do better but the effort is improving. The mistakes we were making early were mistakes that weren’t coachable. We just weren’t playing hard. But I see them giving more effort and playing harder. If they’ll do that, they will continue to get better.”

Newton got a huge game from Tiara Buckley who poured in 44 points. Shakara Edwards addd 15 points for the Lady Tigers while Deonna Blaylock had six points.

“That’s the first game that Tiara played like we expected her to play,” Porter said. “She did the things we expected her to do and she had a huge game.”

Newton controlled the game from the opening tip, outscoring the Lady Yellowjackets 23-14 in the first period and 15-13 in the second for a 38-27 halftime lead.

Newton extended the lead to 61-44 at the end of the third.



Starkville boys 79, Newton 56

The Yellowjackets jumped out to a 23-11 lead in the first period and never looked back in taking a 23-point win over the visiting Tigers Saturday night.

“I still don’t think we’ve gotten our legs under us yet,” Porter said. “But that’s no excuse. You still have to execute. When you go on the road against a Class 5A ranked team, the margin for error is small. We played better in the second half but were down so much at the half, it really didn’t matter.”

The Yellowjackets continued to pour it on in the second period, outscoring Newton 20-12 to lead 43-23 at the half.

Steve Edwards was the only Tiger in double figures with 15 points while Antonio Grace and Chucky Curry had seven points apiece.



Northeast girls 70, Newton 67

Newton overcame a 16-7 first-quarter deficit to force overtime, where they eventually lost to homestanding Northeast.

After falling behind 16-7, Newton trailed 26-19 at the half and 42-32 at the end of the third.

The Lady Tigers forced overtime by outscoring the Lady Trojans 26-16 in the fourth period.

Northeast outscored Newton 12-9 in the overtime period.

Tiara Buckley and Asa Evans had 16 points apiece to led the Lady Tigers while Tyisha Amos had 13 points. Shakara Edwards had eight points and Shey Nichols seven for the Lady Tigers.



Northeast boys 74, Newton 69

Led by Mississippi State signee Romero Osby, Northeast Lauderdale outscored Newton 32-18 in the final period en route to a five-point win last week.

Newton led 17-16 after the first period before erupting in the second period by outscoring the Trojans 21-9 to take a 38-25 lead into the half.

Northeast cut the lead to 51-42 by the end of the third before going off for 32 in the fourth.

Four Tigers were in double figures as Steve Edwards had 14 points while Corey Denham had 12 points. Keondre Hodges had 11 points and Antonio Grace 10 points.

        

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