Forrest County AHS cruised past the Stone County 68-29 in the opening round of the 4A playoffs on Tuesday night. The Aggies were led by point guard Joshua McArthur, who finished the game with 23 points.
The game started with both teams playing a sloppy, with McArthur generating most of the Aggies’ offense. McArthur consistently drove past defenders and finished at the rim.
“I saw my team starting out slow, so I had to put on a spark because it’s playoff time,” said McArthur. “We are trying to make a run to get to Jackson, so that’s what I had to do.”
McArthur helped the Aggies open the game with a 10-0 run, as he scored eight of those 10 points, and end of the first quarter with a 14-4 lead.
The Aggie defense was also critical in the opening half with the Tomcats going almost six minutes without a bucket. The half-court press and the size advantage the Aggies was apparent. The first basket by the Tomcats made was an unlikely deep 3-pointer that banked in.
“We definitely take pride in our defense,” FCAHS coach Scott Landry said. “That’s what we emphasize. We always say offense is going to come to us, and we will be able to get scores, but we have to get stops. I think we can do even better than we did in the first quarter.”
Other than the lone 3-pointer, Stone had almost no answer for the Aggies’ defense. FCAHS took a 34-13 lead at the break with McArthur leading all scorers at the halftime with his17 points.
“We take practice our defense every day. One on one full court, all for us to get prepared for this time right here,” McArthur said.
The second half started with a 16-2 run by the Aggies as FCAHS opened with a half-court press that prevented the Tomcats from practically getting any shots up. From there different Aggies got involved in the third quarter, as David Combest scored seven points in the opening minutes of the third quarter.
The Tomcats started the third quarter with a basket but were outscored 24-2 and trailed 58-15. From there the Aggies’ bench put the game away in the fourth quarter. FCAHS has now won 11 straight games and will host South Pike in the second round of the playoffs.
“We are going to take it game by game and try to get better in practice tomorrow,” said Landry when asked if his team can finally breakthrough in the playoffs. “We aren’t trying to analyze how good we are. We are just trying to get better.”
The Aggies are no stranger to the Eagles, as they faced each other in the postseason in what will now be a fourth consecutive season. In two of the previous meetings South Pike defeat ed FCAHS in the second round.
“We feel that we are prepared to get (to the championship), and we should make it this year,” McArthur said. “We had so many opportunities to make it in past years, and we feel like this is the year.”
