WAYNESBORO — Lawrence County and Oak Grove split two basketball games in Friday-night action at the Wayne County Christmas Invitational.  In girls’ play, the highly-ranked Lady Warriors improved to 15-0 with a 73-36 thrashing of the Lady Cougars.  In boys’ action, Coach Pat Bridges’ LCHS Cougars held off Oak Grove, 59-55, in a tough, hard-fought battle.

     In the girls’ game, Vicki Rutland’s Lady Cougars made a game of it for about the first 12 minutes, trailing 20-12 midway through the second quarter.  After that, however, Coach Mark Swindle’s Lady Warriors blew the game open.

     Swindle formerly coached at Southwest Mississippi Community College and Parklane.

     Samantha Duncan led Oak Grove with 14 points.  Kaylin Watts and Nia Davis added 10 points each.  Constance Quinn had added 9 points, 6 assists, and 4 steals.  Oak Grove had 27 steals in the game, many of them leading to uncontested baskets at the other end of the floor.

     Lawrence County, which fell to 7-6 with the loss, was led by senior Brittany McDuffey.  She had 12 points and 8 rebounds.

     In boys’ action, Lawrence County bounced back nicely from a Monday-night beat-down at the hands of 1A powerhouse Dexter, playing one of its best games of the season in beating the Class 6A Warriors.  The Cougars gained a lead with a 22-11 advantage in the third quarter, then stubbornly held off Oak Grove in a tense fourth period.  Oak Grove closed to within 2 points, at 52-50, midway through the final quarter.

     “It was a very good effort,” Bridges said, “a much better effort than the other night.  As proud as I am of it, I want to see more consistency in our guys.  We need to bring it like this every night.”

     Brandon Daniels led LCHS with 22 points and 9 rebounds.  He and junior guard Anson Fox both had big fourth quarters.  Fox had 8 points on the night.  Freshman Gabriel Lewis had the best night of his brief varsity career, scoring 11 points.  Fellow freshman Phillip Moore added 9.

     Nick Vasquez led Oak Grove with 21 points.  The Warriors, coached by Austin Alexander, fell to 5-9 on the season.