By DAVE WOODALL
Slidell sports writer
SLIDELL – The Pope John Paul II Jaguars girls and boys’ basketball teams to the court last week to take on the Pearl River Rebels in a non-district encounter.
In the girls’ game, if you were looking for a lot of scoring you came to the wrong place as each team had trouble finding the basket.
The first period ended with PJP on top 6-3 with Jaguar McCabe Shifflett leading with four points.
Annabelle Campbell had all three of the Rebel points all coming from the foul line.
Both teams scored only five points in the second period with Jayla Tillison hitting a trey and Jordan Ingram with a bucket.
With PJP up 11-8 at halftime it was apparent that neither team shot well from the floor.
PJP shot 5-of-28 (18%) with six turnovers while Pearl River went 2-of-22 (9%) and committed 11 miscues.
The second half was a carbon copy of the first as each team struggled from the floor with PJP scoring only 12 and the Rebels only five for the 23-13 win by the Jaguars.
Camille Dedeaux continues to impress pulling down 24 rebounds while hitting the game-high 10 points for the Lady Jags (3-5).
Shifflett followed with six points, Jessica Feraci scored four and Savanah Beaudette added three.
Tillison led the Lady Rebels (3-3) with six points followed by Campbell with five and Ingram with two.
“We just had too many turnovers,” said Lady Jag head coach Daryl Thomas. “It’s just something that we need to clean up. We’ve got a lot of new girls that need to get used to playing with each other and learn how to control the ball and begin to gel as a unit.”
The boys’ game was another story as it went down to the wire with PJP coming out on top 52-50.
Corey Schellang got the home crowd excited early by hitting three, three-points shots in the first period to pace the Jaguar offense.
Shawn Henderson also contributed nine first half points to give the Jags a 30-23 lead at the half.
Dylan Soileau kept the Rebels (1-2) close with eight first half points while A.J. Taylor added 10.
Joshua Philips got things going in the third period hitting six of the Jags eight points.
Taylor and Soileau kept Pearl River in it with five and four points respectively.’
With the score at 38-37 Jags to begin the fourth period, things really started to heat up.
The back and forth play eventually resulted in a 46-46 score with 1:50 left in the game.
The lead changed hands on the following two possessions with PJP taking a 49-48 on another three-pointer by Schellang.
With :34 left in the contest, Soileau drained a bucket to regain the lead at 50-49.
Then came the shot of the night.
With time running out, Henderson found himself open just outside the arc.
Without hesitation, he drained the trey with :11 on the clock to give the Jags a hard fought 52-50 win.
Henderson and Schellang led the Jags (4-3) with 16 points apiece followed by Philips with 14.
Soileau and Taylor led the Rebels with game-highs of 19 points each.
“It was a very physical game and we enjoy playing at this pace,” said Jag head coach Major Gorgone.
“We got into some foul trouble and that’s when they closed the gap on us. It was like a heavyweight fight and in the end we responded and I’m very proud of the way we played tonight.”