Provine tops Natchez 52-40, punches ticket to Regional Tournament Championship
FLORENCE — For the third year in a row, the Provine Rams heading to the district championship game.
Behind a stellar defensive performance and a steady dose of star Jamaal Henderson, the Rams held off a late Natchez rally to beat the Bulldogs 52-40 in the Semifinal Round of the Region 3-5A district tournament at Florence on Tuesday night.
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With the win, Provine (20-6) clinched a First Round Class 5A home playoff game next week. Natchez will either be a No. 3 seed or No. 4 seed and will have to travel in the First Round of the playoffs pending the outcome of the consolidation game on Friday.
“That was a true testimonial of who we are," Provine coach Sirdonta Washington said. "We’ve faced a lot of adversity all year and did again tonight, but it was a moment where we had to go up and find out who we truly are. We had 5-6 guys step up and bought in, and came away with the win.”
The way the game started, it felt like Provine was going to run away with it. The Rams raced out to a 17-3 lead, highlighted by an 11-0 run to end the first quarter.
Natchez took advantage of turnovers and switched to a two-three zone defense in the second quarter, which worked like a charm. Provine scored just four points and the Bulldogs whittled the lead down to 21-14 by the half.
But the Rams righted the ship in the third quarter, and stretched the lead back to double digits at 31-21.
Natchez clawed its way back into it in the fourth, and with 2:39 left tied the game at 40-40 on a steal and lay-up by James Key.
Provine closed out the game on a 12-0 run.
“That’s our style of basketball where we like to play up-tempo and get after it on defense causing turnovers and just have fun,” Washington said. “We did that early on, but got away from what we do in the second and third quarters. Jamaal is undersized where’s he playing (inside), but he plays hard and finishes well around the rim, and today we needed him to do that with shots not falling. Our eyes are on the district championship. We’d love to three-peat.”
Henderson had 16 points to lead Provine, while Jakobi Thompson added 10 points for the Rams.
“Today we were really focused on defense because offensively shots weren’t falling," Henderson said. "But defense is more important, so I had to do what I had to do. I had to keep my intensity up the whole game, so the team can be in the lead and I can be a leader on the court.”
Daylan Haygood had 11 points to lead Natchez, while King added 10 points for the Bulldogs (14-11).
“We didn’t execute well down the stretch and when they got in the press we had some untimely turnovers,” said Natchez coach David Haygood. “I have an extremely young team with just two seniors, so we’re playing hard and trying to gain experience, and our goal was to make the playoffs and get better.”
