There was a playoff-like feeling in the gym on Monday when Bogue Chitto hosted North Pike.The two schools met last month in Summit, a 51-50 win for the MHSAA 2A Bobcats over the 5A Jaguars from North Pike.

Fans from both schools were on their feet in the final minutes Monday, a 52-48 win for Bogue Chitto that moved the Bobcats to 10-2 on the season. North Pike is also 10-2 this year, with both losses coming to BC.

North Pike went 7-22 last season and 1-26 the year before that. The 10 wins thus far are already the most wins for a NP team since the 2019-2020 team finished 11-21. The Jags are coached by Terrell Anderson, a longtime head coach at North Pike, who returned to the bench this season after taking a break for a few years.

Bogue Chitto is coming off a 2A state championship appearance with four starters back including reigning All-Area MVP Devonta “Bam” Thompson. The Bobcats went 28-2 last season and 21-6 the year before that for head coach Marc Howard.

Bogue Chitto led 24-15 at halftime on Monday, but North Pike opened both the third and fourth quarters with strong runs.

A 6-0 spurt to start the final quarter gave the visiting Jaguars a 39-37 lead, the first advantage for them since the score was 4-2 in favor of North Pike.

Trailing 46-43, Bogue Chitto senior guard Shakell Jenkins found senior wing Noah Magee in the corner in front of the home bench.

Magee, a Belhaven University commit, drained the 3-pointer to knot things at 46-46 with 2:54 left in the game. Jenkins then tied the game on an offensive rebound putback that made the score 48-48 with 1:36 remaining.

The go-ahead bucket was scored by the only non-senior starter for the Bobcats, junior forward Tripp McCaffrey.

The assist on the basket down low by the 6-foot-5 McCaffrey also went to Jenkins and came on a play where Bogue Chito twice got offensive rebounds to maintain possession.

Thompson then hit a pair of free throws with 3.9 seconds left to ice the four-point margin of victory.

The final three minutes of play was a good showcase of what Bogue Chitto does so well.

Most impressive is the way that the Bobcats share the ball.

Thompson is extremely quick and a natural scorer, but his shot wasn’t falling on Monday as he finished with 13 points, with all but five of those coming via the free throw line.

What Thompson did well on Monday was distribute the ball, hitting Magee with a couple nice dimes early in transition to get the Bobcats rolling.

In the half court, Thompson draws the defense in the lane and looks to McCaffrey or senior forward Randy Crisler inside for a drop off pass.

Shakell Jenkins is a guy that can do a little of anything, like his brother Shomari, the only starter lost to graduation last season and who’s now a freshman on the team at Southwest Mississippi CC. Shakell will guard smaller or larger players and he helps get the Bobcats into their quick transition game with his speed.

 The two substitutes that came off the bench on Monday for BC, senior forward Isaiah Collins and sophomore wing Jayden Poole, fit in perfectly with the style of play shown by the starters.

Another area where the Bobcats shine is their ability to snag offensive rebounds, many which come from them being able to tap the ball out, even when they can’t grab it.

McCaffrey and the 6-foot-5 Magee are always around the goal, jumping to get their hands on a rebound. Crisler holds space inside with his strength and Jenkins and Thompson can run down long rebounds that slower feet will never reach.

Jenkins caught a ball that was going out of bounds, turned and looked while in the air and perfectly fired a pass to McCaffrey under the basket for the go-ahead score.

A less athletic or less experienced player might have panicked and thrown the ball long, but when these Bobcats are at their best, they are always looking for each other.

After making the 2A semifinals two years ago and losing the 2A championship game in close fashion last season to Ingomar, Howard wanted to make sure his team was battle tested, and the Bobcats have faced some good competition thus far in 2024.

They have two wins over a solid MAIS team in Central Hinds Academy. Both of the losses this season for the Bobcats are to MAIS schools in Jackson Prep (63-59) and Oak Forest Academy (70-57). Oak Forest is 12-1 and Jackson Prep is 10-1, with its only loss coming by one point at Oak Forest last week.

BC also has a 61-54 win over 5A Natchez High (7-3) under its belt. The Bobcats will face 4A McComb and 5A Brookhaven High on Dec. 27-28 at the McComb High Christmas Tournament.

“I thought we played good enough to win, but we’re still not scoring at the rate which we like, but our competition has been the toughest we’ve ever played this season,” said Howard. “North Pike is a lot better than people realize and they could make some noise in a tough 5A division.”

Magee scored 11 points on Monday, with his big 3-pointer being his first bucket of the second half after he scored six of his team’s first 10 points, including a dunk in transition that put BC up 10-4 early.

Jenkins and Crisler scored 10 points each. McCaffrey scored four points, while Poole and Collins added two points apiece.

Senior guard Quinterious Thompson led North Pike with 18 points, as all but one of those came in the second half. Junior forward Kentravious Johson added 12 points and North Pike got two points each from seven different players to go along with four points from senior forward Cedric McGhee.