Two teams go to Big House

The H.W. Byers Lions have sort of flown under the radar this season when it comes to all the hype.

“That’s the way I like it,” coach James Sales said on the bus ride home Saturday night from a Class 1A quarter-final playoff win at Coffeeville.

“Keep us like that.” About 45 minutes earlier,

his underdog Lions had left Yalobusha County with a convincing 73-51 win over the Pirates.

Next up was a semi-final contest in The Big House on Monday of this week against McAdams. It’s the Byers boys’ first trip to Mississippi Coliseum in 17 years. The Lions fell a win short of

the state’s capital city the past two seasons.

“It’s overdue,” Sales said, “but I’ll take it.”

“This group is all about hard work, and it has paid off. We’d been down this road the last couple of years and didn’t quite make it. I knew we had it in us. We just had to execute.”

Byers certainly executed in the third quarter at Coffeeville.

Clinging to a 33-31 lead at the half, the Lions roared in the next eight minutes. They outscored the Pirates 27-8 to put the huge playoff victory on ice.

“We settled down, and everything started clicking for us,” Sales said. “We talked at halftime and made a few adjustments. But most of all, it was our defense. We stepped up big-time defensively in the third quarter, and that was the difference in the game.”

And the offense certainly wasn’t bad either. Jabari Wright provided a lot of the firepower as he scored 10 in the third. The Lions were also five of six from the free-throw stripe in the quarter.

Balanced scoring was a key to the offensive production on the night.

Hitting in double digits were Devin Moore and Wright with 19 points each, Michael James with 17 and Vincent Talley with 10.

“For some reason or another, we always play better on the road,” said Sales, in his third season as head coach at Byers. “We concentrate better on just going out and playing ball.”

As for as any prognostications during the regular season or post-season, he said he doesn’t “get caught up in all that.”

“All I know is that my team is for real,” he said.

And he also knows he was enjoying that bus ride home on Saturday night with his team, which improved to 21-4 on the season.

“It’s one of the better ones I’ve had in a while,” Sales said.