MONTICELLO – Lawrence County and West Jones split a basketball double-header Friday night, at Lawrence County High School. In the girls’ game, West Jones won by a score of 57-43. LCHS claimed the boys’ game, however, scoring the final seven points in a 59-52 win.

In the girls’ game, Lawrence County held a 20-15 lead midway through the second quarter, only to see the Lady Mustangs go on a 17-1 run to end the half. LCHS would never recover.

Zan Ratcliffe (16) and Kendra Keys (15) combined for 31 points in leading Coach Sharon Murray’s Lady Mustangs to their fourth win of the season, against three losses.

For Vicki Rutland’s Lady Cougars, DeNeisha Dickson led with 22 points, five steals and two assists. Freshman Camryn Davis added 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots.

The Lawrence County girls fell to 1-3 with the loss.

“We were flat all the way around,” Rutland said. “You can’t play that way against a well-coached, quality team. Heck, you can’t play that way against anybody. We didn’t play our game at all.”

The boys’ game was a good one. After trailing by two (23-21) at the half, Lawrence County carved out a six-point lead (42-36 early in the fourth quarter. West Jones battled back, spurred on by the hot three-point shooting of Brandon Jones. Jones hit three three-pointers in a three-minute stretch.

West Jones knotted the game at 52-52 with 1:15 left in the game, on two Jerward Whitlock free throws. After that, Lawrence County’s Phillip Moore took charge, scoring the final seven points of the game.

Keith Davis led Pat Bridges’ Cougars with 16 points and eight rebounds. Gabriel Lewis tallied 15 points and Moore had 13. Shacorey Pittman also netted double figures with 10. Along with five points, Lawrence County’s big man Keyshawn Feazell had a game-high 11 rebounds and five blocked shots.

“I thought the guys played hard,” Bridges said. His Cougars improved to 3-1 with the win. “I was very pleased with the energy level and with the defensive intensity. This was a quality win for our team.”

West Jones, coached by Don Moore, fell to 3-2 with the loss.