West Lincoln head coach Lane Young is a busy man, coaching both the boys’ and girls’ varsity basketball teams.

Friday night, in their 44-26 win over Amite County, Young reached an impressive milestone obtaining his 300th career win as the boys’ coach at West Lincoln High School. This is Young’s 15th year as the man in charge and it’s been a great ride for the Bears’ coach.

“As a coach, when you reach a milestone win total, it’s only because of your players,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate to have great players and great assistant coaches like coach Brooks Smith and others at West Lincoln.”

As for the game itself, it was a defensive game from the start as West Lincoln took a 12-5 lead at the end of the first quarter and held a steady 19-12 lead going into halftime.

The defense continued its stellar play in the second half as they held Amite County to 14 points in the second half en route to the 44-26 victory. The win also gives West Lincoln their first district victory of the season and moves them to 1-3 overall in district play.

“I thought our effort was really good and we did a great job controlling the tempo of the game,” Young said. “It was a much needed win.”

Freshman guard Karlton Byrd led the Bears in scoring with 13 points, going 3-of-5 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free throw line. Junior guard Adam Martinez was next in line with 12 points for the game, shooting 4-of-11 from the field and 4-of-6 from the charity stripe. Junior forward Chase Owen had nine points for West Lincoln, going 4-of-5 from the field and hauled in 11 rebounds as well.

Lady Bears 37, Lady Trojans 31

In a tight game from beginning to end, the West Lincoln Lady Bears used a strong fourth quarter to rebound and get the win over Amite County 37-31.

With the win, the Lady Bears move to 6-11 overall and pick up their second district win of the season.

“We played well in the first half and showed a lot of grit in the fourth quarter,” Young said about his team. “Our bench did a great job for us tonight.”

Defense dictated the tempo in the first half with West Lincoln taking the 18-14 going into halftime.

Amite County would make a run in the third quarter to tie the game at 25 heading into the final quarter of play. The Lady Bears fought hard on defense in the fourth quarter and outscored Amite County 12-6 to take the 37-31 victory.

Senior forward Demesha Deer led West Lincoln in scoring with 10 points, shooting 4-of-10 from the field. Sophomore guard Megan Gerald had an off night shooting, going 1-of-9 from the field, but scored nine points thanks to shooting 7-of-9 from the free throw line.

Next up for West Lincoln is a road trip to Enterprise to face their county rival  Tuesday night. The Lady Bears tip off at 6 p.m. and the Bears follow up at 7:30 p.m.