Wildcats dominates Lee

The Enterprise Wildcats (10-2) got a measure of revenge on Dec. 21 with a 72-52 thrashing of the R.E. Lee Generals at home.

After falling 57-56 at the last minute to Lee back on Dec. 9, Enterprise left no doubt this time around dominating from the beginning to end. Enterprise jumped out to an 18-6 lead in the first quarter and took a 31-21 at halftime. Enterprise continued to win every quarter, outscoring Lee 19-15 in the third quarter and 22-16 in the fourth quarter, in the second half to secure the 20-point win.

Along with the scoreboard, the Wildcats dominated the boards, as well. Enterprise outrebounded Lee 39-32 and knocked down 7-of-19 threes.

Senior Quentin Hayes had his biggest night of the season thus far with 22 points, seven rebounds and five assists, while senior Elijah Terry earned 16 points and nine rebounds in the win. Ken Mitchell added 10 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

Both the Wildcats and Lady Cats basketball teams picked up home wins over the Andalusia Bulldogs and Marianna (Fla.) Bulldogs last week, as well.

After jumping up a spot to No. 7 in the Class 7A rankings, the Wildcats throttled Andalusia 59-23 on Dec. 14. The Wildcats outscored Andalusia 31-12 in the first half and 28-11 in the second half. In fact, Enterprise did not allow Andalusia to score more than seven points in any single quarter and held the Bulldogs to 27 percent shooting from the field.

The Wildcats also forced 21 points off 19 Andalusia turnovers and outscored the Bulldogs 40-10 in the paint. Enterprise also outrebounded Andalusia 33-26.

Terry had another big night with 21 points and 15 rebounds, while freshman Eric Winters scored eight points and earned three steals on defense. Reese Dowling added six points off the bench.

The Wildcats followed that up with a wild 52-50 victory over Marianna on Dec. 17. The Wildcats never trailed in the game and at one point held a 20-point lead, including a 10-point lead going into the fourth quarter. Marianna, though, outscored Enterprise 20-12 in the fourth quarter and looked to be poised to take a lead with under two seconds remaining.

Marianna had the ball with time winding down and trailing 52-50 and a Marianna player drove to the basket. It seemed like an Enterprise player fouled the Bulldog before he went up for a shot. He continued with the shot and sunk it along with the foul, which would give Marianna a chance to take the lead with just 1.9 seconds left.

After the first official counted the basket and the foul, another referee came in and waved off the basket saying that the foul occurred before the shot. Enterprise was already in the double bonus, so the Bulldogs still had an opportunity to tie the game with two foul shots. Marianna was 13-of-14 on free throw attempts up to that point but the shooter missed both attempts and Terry grabbed the rebound and threw it to the other side of the court as time expired and the Wildcats survived.

The two sides battled it out even across the board with both the Bulldogs and Wildcats turning the ball over 20 times each and Enterprise holding a slight 25-26 edge in rebounding. Both teams shot just over 41 percent from the field.

Mitchell led Enterprise with 16 points and three steals, while Terry had 10 points, three steals and five rebounds. Hayes added eight points, five rebounds and three assists, while senior Tomar Hobdy earned seven points and four assists.

The Lady Cats also picked up a resounding 62-34 win over Andalusia on Dec. 14. After taking an 18-10 lead into the second quarter, the Lady Cats exploded in the second quarter to outscore the Lady Bulldogs 30-7 in the second half taking a 48-17 lead into halftime. Andalusia managed to outscore Enterprise 17-14 in the second half but it wasn’t nearly enough.

Senior Dashia Nelson had a season-high 20 points for the Lady Cats along with nine points from Jayde Pena.

The Lady Cats followed that up with another dominant win 49-28 over Marianna (Fla.) on Dec. 17. After leading 11-5 in the first quarter, another explosive second quarter catapulted Enterprise again. The Lady Cats outscored Marianna 20-7 in the second quarter to go up 31-12 at halftime. Marianna outscored Enterprise 12-7 in the third quarter, however, to cut the lead to 38-24 going into the final period. The Lady Cats held on and outscored Marianna 11-4 to secure the win, though.

Both Joye Anderson and Nelson totaled 18 points each in the win.

Both the Wildcats and Lady Cats host Georgiana on Dec. 23 and then the Lady Cats will play in the Elba Christmas Tournament Dec. 27-30. The Lady Cats play Pike County in the opening round on Dec. 27 at noon. The Wildcats will travel to Huntsville to compete in the Huntsville Times Classic Dec. 27-30.