It’s holiday hoops time as Monday and Tuesday featured Loyd Star hosting a Thanksgiving Shootout that included Enterprise, Wesson, St. Andrew’s Episcopal, Mize, Franklin County, North Pike and Amite County.

Loyd Star Thanksgiving Shootout

Wesson 41, Enterprise 31 (Girls)

Enterprise 67, Wesson 51 (Boys)

Mize 44, Loyd Star 37 (Girls)

Mize 50, Loyd Star 30 (Boys)

The schedule began on Monday with North Pike taking on Amite County and St. Andrew’s Episcopal playing Franklin County. MHSAA 5A North Pike won their games in dominating fashion over the 2A Trojans from Amite County, with a 57-18 victory in the girls’ contest and a 73-22 win in the boys’ game.

Both of the next games were won by Franklin County, 38-29 in girls’ and 57-52 in the boy’s game.

The 1A Enterprise Yellow Jackets and the 3A Wesson Cobras then met in a matchup that will be a division pairing next season when the Jackets jump a class and the Cobras drop one to both play in Region 7-2A along with Loyd Star, Wilkinson County, and Amite County.

Coach Michelle Nunnery and the Wesson girls’ team moved to 3-4 with their 7-point win. First year EAC coach Blaine Roberts saw his team drop to 4-3 and had a two-game winning streak snapped via the loss.

Roberts, a standout during his playing career at Brookhaven Academy, is in his first year as a high school head coach after getting started last year at North Pike Middle School.

Roberts’ crew has collected wins this season over West Lincoln, Franklin County, McLaurin, and Amite County. They’ve also been beaten by Loyd Star, Bogue Chitto and now Wesson.

Wesson led 20-15 at halftime. Leading the Cobras in scoring was senior guard Sa’Niya Brice with 18 points. Junior post Brianna Dixon chipped in nine points and junior guard Jerkeivsha Edwards added seven points. Rounding out the Wesson scoring was junior Jamirah Harvey with two points, sophomore Jacey Shannon with two points, senior Ella Logan with two points and freshman Kenslie Carter with one point.

Enterprise returned lots of experience this season from a team that won 10 games last season. On Monday, Roberts started freshman Sarah Burgess, senior Kailee Nuckles, senior Jayden Keene, junior Caitlin Case, and senior Natalie Williams

Burgess led the way against Wesson with 11 points. Case scored nine points, seven of which came in the first quarter. Knuckles added seven points, Elizabeth Hall scored three points off the bench, and Keene scored one point.

After playing Mize on Tuesday in day two of the tournament, Enterprise will be back in action on Dec. 5, hosting West Lincoln.

Wesson was to play North Pike on day two of the tournament and will be back in action on Dec. 2 at Amite County.

The boys’ game was a back-and-forth matchup that saw each team having runs of good play.

Wesson head coach Trace Abdul-Hadi called a timeout after his Cobras fell behind 8-0. Wesson got on the scoreboard via an offensive rebound putback from junior forward Brendon Duguid.

Duguid started in the post along with senior Austin Johnson. On the perimeter, the Cobras went with senior point guard Brynn Brice, junior wing Kemari Brown, and sophomore wing Damarion Smith.

EAC countered with senior Landon McNickles, junior Jonathan McNickles, junior Ra’Jayvion Haygood, senior Trey Vining, and junior Patrick Pendleton, an experienced group that all played a part in the Yellow Jackets finishing second in their region last season under former coach Rusty Newman.

Brice hit a 3-pointer for Wesson that completed a run that saw the Cobras tied the game at 14-14 late in the first quarter as the Jackets led 20-16 after the opening eight minutes.

A strong play inside by Johnson gave Wesson its first lead of the game, 22-20, with just under five minutes to go until halftime. With broad shoulders and strength that he showed on the defensive line for the Cobras in football, Johnson is a player that the Cobras can run their offense through in the post as he scored a game high 21 points.

Wesson led 26-25 at halftime.

As your old coach always told you, the game can’t be won in the first four minutes after halftime, but it can be lost in that critical junction.

That’s when Enterprise came out with juice and jumped back ahead for a lead they’d later let dwindle, but never relinquish. The Jackets used a 6-0 spurt to go ahead 31-25 and held an advantage of at least six points for the rest of the game, except when the Cobras pulled to within 44-41, a counter from Wesson that was quickly answered by another run from Enterprise.

The game was closer than the final score appeared, as the Jackets hit some late free throws and got some easy baskets against a slowly transitioning Wesson.

Landon McNickles, a guy that Enterprise fans are used to seeing with the ball in his hands in both football and basketball, scored 17 points for Enterprise, with 13 of those coming in the second half.

His brother Jonathan, this is meant as a compliment, is a player that has a game that reminds you of Draymond Green. Not that he goes around kicking or tripping people, but the craftiness with which he plays.

Landon broke out on a fast break and missed a shot in the third quarter, hitting the ball off the back-iron as a defender closed in on him. Jonathan McNickles had run right on their tail, blocked out a Cobra that was jumping behind him, and put the offensive rebound back in.

It was a smart basketball play that many might miss because of assuming the shot would go in.

Jonathan McNickles finished with a team high 18 points in the win. Pendleton, who moved in as a starter after being a key substitute last season, scored 10 points while Vining added 12 points. Haygood scored five points, Michael Magee added two points, and Andrew Cox rounded out the EAC scoring with one point.

The win was the second straight for EAC, as their record now sits at 2-5 and Wesson drops to 1-6 with the loss.

Like Roberts at Enterprise and Newman at Loyd Star, both Mize basketball teams are being led by a new head coach who oversees both programs in Sam Sumrall.

The Mize girls now 5-1 after their win over Loyd Star, with the lone loss coming to 5A Wayne County.

Freshman guard Abby Evans led the Bulldogs with 18 points, as the Mize girls led Loyd Star 21-16 at halftime.

Loyd Star finished 10-13 last season, under former coach Russell Cruise, who’s now coaching at Silliman Institute.

The Hornets have a young roster on the girls’ team, with Newman starting sophomore Maddie Kate Britt, freshman Camille Creel, sophomore Kaylin Hester, junior Micah Claire Lowe, and senior Avery Sellers on Monday.

The 5-foot-9 Lowe started the game with four straight points and finished with a team best 14. Creel scored six points, Britt added four points, freshman Mallory Sones scored four points, and Sellers, Samantah Reed, Hester all added three points each.

Loyd Star cut the advantage to six points late but couldn’t find the offense needed to pull ahead. As often can be the case with young players, the Hornets were tentative at times, not sure who was going to be the one to put up a shot, overpassing instead of going up, which led to too many turnovers without a shot attempted.

Loyd Star and St. Andrew’s were scheduled to face one another on day two of tournament play. The loss to Mize drops the LS girls’ squad to 1-5 as the Hornets will host Salem on Dec. 5 and then get a chance to avenge the loss to Mize on Dec. 6 with a trip to Smith County to face the Bulldogs again.

The boys’ matchup was the first for Loyd Star with the players who’d been suiting up on the football field for the Hornets.

Loyd Star and Mize met in the second round of the MHSAA 2A football playoffs, with the Hornets authoring a second half comeback to beat the Bulldogs 38-32.

LS had started the season 4-1 prior to this loss, with two of those wins coming over Wesson, one against Enterprise, and the other 46-43 at Jefferson County.

On Monday, Newman started senior Ethan Smith, senior Eli Thornton, senior Xavier Vaughn, junior AJ Byrd, and junior Braylon Bowman.

The game was tied at 7-7 after the first quarter and Mize led 20-13 at halftime and 31-21 heading into the fourth quarter.

Braxton Williams and Vaughn led the way with six points each for LS. Thornton, Bryson Banks, and Braylon Richardson each scored four points while Smith and Anthony Humphrey each chipped in three points.

Seniors on the roster included Smith, Thronton, Vaughn, Williams, and Carter Britt. The Hornets will get further chances to mesh the recent additions to the roster with five non-region games to start next month before Region 7-2A play begins on Dec. 17 at West Lincoln.