Midway through the first period Meridian head coach Ron Norman told his players, "put on your gloves because we are in for a fight tonight." A fight is that it was as both teams fought until the bitter end with the Wildcats coming out on top 59-53, pulling away in the final moments due to Panther turnovers.
“I thought we did a good job defensively, but we also made some crucial mistakes late in the game defensively, too. Overall, I thought our defensive effort was good. There a few things we have got to get better at, but I thought we played hard. Our intensity level was good and I thought we matched them every trip down the floor. Sometimes it hurts to lose a game like that, especially when you lead most of the game, but sometimes it is a good thing because of what can happen next from it. You don’t want to lose, but you can’t let tonight beat you this Friday,” said Petal head coach Todd Kimble.
The first period of action started with both teams clamping down defensively as the first points of the game did not come until 4:38 left in the first period when sophomore Jamar Jenkins hit a three-point shot to give Petal the opening lead. Buckets from senior Treylan Smith kept the score within one as Meridian ended the first period with a 10-9 lead over the Panthers.
Scoring picked up in the second period as Jenkins hit a key three during the period and led the way with seven points. Senior Caleb McGill also had four points and key rebounds as both teams swapped the lead midway through the second period. Meridian’s Kyler Yarbrough also had seven points in the second period, while Makeem Roberts answered Jenkins’ three-point shot with one of his own. Still, Petal led the way as both teams went to the locker rooms 30-26.
The Panthers led the way throughout most of the third period as Will Horne, McGill and others contributed on the offensive end. However, the Wildcats closed quickly near the end of the third period, tying things up 41-41 on the backs of Yarbrough and Roberts.
Petal started the fourth period with a three-point shot by Horne to take a 44-41 lead, however, both teams went to the foul line with Meridian hitting all four of their free-throw attempts, while Petal only connected with one of their two tries, bringing the score even 45-45. Both teams traded the lead back and forth until Yarbrough went to the free-throw line, nailing three-straight attempts to give the Wildcats a 51-49 lead. Meridian would not relinquish the lead, and they went on to take the win as Petal had back-to-back turnovers in the final 52 seconds.
While Kimble thought his team played with intensity, he believed his team needed to step up offensively and work on fundamental things moving forward.
“We’re making mistakes we’ve made over the past 10 or 11 games and if we don’t correct those, it’ll bite us. It bit us tonight. It is mental things. I thought there were opportunities late in the game to get offensive rebounds and I saw guys standing on the perimeter. That is something we try to focus on and in the first half we did a good job, but in the second half, we didn’t. Sometimes you don’t make shots, so you have to do those other things to get the ball back and try to score.”
What’s next
Petal falls to 11-2 (0-1) on the season and will face Oak Grove Friday night in a district matchup. Meridian moves to 15-2 (1-0) and will travel to George County Friday night.
Notes
The Lady Petal Panthers (5-12) fell to the Lady Meridian Wildcats (18-1) 47-12.
