Rebels ambush Brook

Published 6:00 am Thursday, January 10, 2008

JACKSON – Forest Hill’s Joshua Moore put on a shooting clinicTuesday night in Shellie M. Bailey Coliseum. The 6-foot-1 seniorguard pumped in a game-high 30 points, to lead the No. 5-rankedRebels to a 68-53 Division 6-4A win over the BrookhavenPanthers.

The Forest Hill Lady Rebels used a slow-tempo offensive attack,along with taking advantage of numerous Brookhaven turnovers; tothe tune of a 46-25 Division 6-4A win over the No. 10-ranked LadyPanthers.

Both teams are on the road Friday night for 6-4A encounters.Brookhaven travels to Lawrence County, with Forest Hill playing atMendenhall.

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Forest Hill 68, Brookhaven 53

Each team shot under 34 percent from the floor, and under 55percent from the charity stripe for the game. Bench scoring andpoints off turnovers would be the deciding factors in the game.

Moore paced the Rebels first-half surge by sacking 5 treys inthe opening 16 minutes, en route to 20 points. His 5 of 6 clip frombeyond the 3-point arc in the half proved to be deadly. Each timethe Panthers would make a run at Forest Hill, Moore would kill thespurt with a long-range bucket.

The Rebels (16-4, 5-0) led 16-9 after one period of play and29-18 at the intermission.

Brookhaven (7-13, 0-3) could not close its deficit to less than10 points in the second half. The Panthers afforded Forest Hill 21points off of their 16 turnovers. The Rebels gave up only 15 pointson 18 Ole Brook miscues.

Forest Hill’s reserves outscored the Panthers 34-11.

The Rebels, coached by Chad Norton, also got 19 points, 9rebounds and 2 steals from 6-foot-5 senior forward Terrell Kennedy.Sophomore point guard Andre Stringer dished out a game-high 7assists.

Leading the way for head Coach Ronald Hines’ Panthers was juniorcenter Desmond Arnold with 12 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals, 2assists and 4 blocked shots. Senior guard Charles (Bobo) Rancifertallied 11 points, 4 steals and 4 assists.

Forest Hill 46, Brookhaven 25

This game was billed as one of the marquee matchups of theseason. Both girls teams were ranked together in a statewide Top-10poll at one time or another.

Neither Brookhaven (16-3, 2-1) nor Forest Hill (18-2, 4-1) couldfind the range in the cavernous Bailey Coliseum. Each team shotunder 35 percent from the floor. The Lady Panthers led 11-10heading into the second stanza, but found themselves down 18-15 athalftime.

Forest Hill head coach Tommy Groves saw 5-foot-6 junior pointguard Bianca Powell power her way to 12 of her game-high 14 pointsin the first half. She also had 4 steals that were converted into 8points (2 treys).

Powell slowed their offensive attack to a snail’s pace to keepthe Lady Panthers from scoring. Their 25-8 spurt to open the secondhalf proved to be Ole Brook’s demise.

The Lady Rebels got 16 points off of 17 Lady Panther errors,with Brookhaven scoring only 4 points off 11 Forest Hill turnovers.Ole Brook shot 24 percent (9 of 37) from the field.

Junior Rebel center Courtney Marbra tossed in 11 points andgrabbed 5 rebounds. Powell would finish the game with 5 assists and5 steals. Rasheda Catchings topped the rebounders with 6.

Brookhaven got 8 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocked shots fromNikki Byrd. Swayze Black had 6 points and 8 rebounds.