Hawks earn top seed
The Holly Springs Hawks go into the district tournament as the top seed and riding a seven-game win streak.
“It feels good to clinch the top seed going into the tournament,” said coach Andre Jones after a road win over Water Valley Tuesday, Feb. 2. “We’re just taking it one game at a time. We are playing solid basketball right now, and we are hoping to keep the ball rolling.”
Charvez Ambrose was the main man in the 76-62 District 2-3A win over the Blue Devils. He blistered the nets for 32 points.
Coach Jones said the sophomore was “very instrumental in the win.” Marquavous Jones had 10 points for Holly High and Dylan King nine.
The Hawks led 18-14 after one quarter, 36-31 at the half and 58-45 at the end of the third.
“We started sluggishly and struggled in the first half,” Jones said. “We did a halfway decent job defensively in the second half to help get us the win.
“We could have played a lot better, but these are teachable moments going into the postseason.” The Holly Springs girls also picked up a district win at Water Valley, 49-35.
“Water Valley is a tough place to play,” coach Jason Shivley said. “We were shorthanded and had to grind to get the win. We got the stops we needed and pulled out a good win in the end.”
The Lady Hawks trailed 9-7 following the opening quarter and outscored the Lady Blue Devils 19-10 in the second to take a 26-19 halftime advantage.
Dajah Turner and Cele’kiesha Brown combined to score 17 of Holly High’s 19 points in the second period.
Shivley’s squad led 36-28 entering the fourth and got a big three to start the final quarter from Brown and went on to win by 14.
Brown finished with a gamehigh 20 points. Turner was close behind with 19.
The Hawks (9-7 overall and 8-2 district) get a first-round bye and will face the Senatobia-Independence winner in the semi-finals of the district tournament at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
The Lady Hawks (3-4 overall and 3-2 district) are the third seed. They faced Byhalia on Monday of this week. The winner will advance to meet Independence Wednesday at 7 p.m.
The tournament concludes Friday (girls) and Saturday (boys) with consolation and championship games.
The top four teams from the district tourney (girls and boys) move on to the state playoffs next week.