Sumter Central once again employed the full court press, but this time the Demopolis Tigers handled it better. However, the Jaguars just physically wore down the Tigers en route to a 64-36 victory in Livingston on Jan. 25.
The loss dropped the Tigers to 9-8 overall and 2-4 in 5A Area 6 while Sumter Central improved to 19-2 and finished a perfect 6-0 in the area.
“I feel like we played with a little bit better pride,” said Head Coach Ashley Allen. “We broke the press, but we still didn’t do what we need to in our half court sets.”
Coach Allen mentioned that when the team broke the press, the offense still went haywire and didn’t return to successful sets such as getting Josh Moore the ball in specific plays.
Sumter Central had the press working early as DHS struggled to get into offensive rhythm allowing the Jaguars to collect a 20-7 lead after the opening quarter.
However, the second quarter is when the Tigers started to break the press like Coach Allen mentioned as DHS outscored the home team 15-13 in the quarter to yield a 33-22 halftime score in favor of SCHS.
The second half was all SCHS as the Jaguars used their depth to wear down the Tigers to outscore Demopolis 31-14 throughout the final two quarters to take the 64-36 victory.
Moore led led DHS with 12 points while Xavier Jowers finished with 10 points to round out the Tiger leading scorers.
Seeding has not been officially determined, but the Tigers still have a chance at being the third seed and avoiding a first round match up against Sumter Central during the 5A Area 6 tournament, which the Jaguars will host starting on Feb. 9.
Allen said, “We haven’t played a full game yet. This week we had the inside game going. Last week it was the outside game going. We just need to have some consistency and have both going at the same time.”
The Tigers still have two weeks filled with games remaining on the schedule before the area tournament starting on Jan. 26 with a home contest against Selma.