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Grenada High School’s Rakeem Griffin sets his eyes on the bucket during a recent home game with Madison Central. The Chargers improved to 16-6 on the season with a 76-68 win over NW Rankin last week. Staff Photo/Chuck Hathcock
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By CHUCK HATHCOCK
Sports Editor
The past couple of weeks, Grenada HS boy’s basketball coach Rahim Lockhart has stressed improved offense in practice to his Chargers.
Those practices finally paid off last Friday night.
Grenada faced Region 3-6A rival NW Rankin Friday night at Flowood in the next to last division contest of the season. The contest went back and forth the entire night.
Trailing 44-43 heading into the final period, the Chargers erupted for 33 fourth period points winning a 76-68 decision.
In the opening game, the Lady Chargers trailed by three at the half and ended up losing a 57-43 decision.
“We have been working in practice to improve the offensive part of our game particularly in the half court,” Lockhart said. “I thought we did a good job with our half court execution.”
With all the work on offense, the defensive end saw some breakdowns.
“Defensively, we gave up way too many points in the paint,” Lockhart said. “Their dribble penetration really killed us. A lot of that can be contributed to the fact that we haven’t worked much in practice on our defense lately.”
Grenada, 16-6, 4-1, led 15-14 at the end of the opening period. That lead stayed at one as the Chargers led 31-30 at intermission.
In the third period, the Cougars grabbed a 44-43 advantage before GHS secured the eight-point win with a big fourth period.
Senior Alex Poole led Grenada with 28 points. Robert Willis and Garrick Hardiman, two other seniors, finished with 18 and 12 points, respectively.
The Chargers begin an important week this week. They close out the regular season with a home game tonight against Class 5A power Oxford.
Friday, they finish the regular season with a journey to Jackson to face Murrah in the regular season finale.
Girls
The Lady Chargers battled the Lady Cougars for a half before NW Rankin took advantage of a decided height advantage in the post area.
“We played them really good in the opening half and managed to have a lead,” coach Ken Ross said. “There were chances to make the margin bigger but we missed too many easy wins.”
Grenada, 8-14, 2-3, was outscored 40-23 in the second half.
Samira Alston paced Grenada with 14 points. Skye Archie finished with 10 points. Briana Young and Marquita Tidwell both had six points. Ashley Taylor chipped in five points. Brittany Hill rounded out the scoring with two points.
Grenada returns to action tonight hosting Oxford for Senior Night. Action begins at 6 p.m.
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