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Lady Rebs at top of 13AA bracket

Lady Rebs at top of 13AA bracket
Obion Central’s girls will start off the District 13AA Tournament at the top.
The Lady Rebels clinched the league’s No. 1 spot for the upcoming postseason tournament with a 49-33 triumph over Milan on Tuesday evening.
With the victory, OC improves to 24-3 (12-0 in 13AA play) with a three-game cushion over second-place Dyersburg.
Even if the county locals were to lose their three remaining league contests and tie with the Lady Trojans, the Lady Rebels own the district’s second tiebreaker — best record against the next best team in the 13AA standings.
Obion Central is 2-0 against the three teams vying for third place: Westview, Gibson County and Covington. D’burg has split with both W’view and GC.
The Lady Rebels have Haywood and Ripley remaining on their schedule along with Dyersburg, which it beat in the first district meeting between the two state-ranked teams.
In the nightcap at Milan, the OC boys bounced back from Monday’s disappointing defeat to Gibson County and downed the Bulldogs 51-44.
It is the first 13AA triumph for the Rebel boys since Dec. 16 when the county locals defeated Milan in overtime at the Troy gym.
In other action on Tuesday, Taleeah Cross poured in 29 points as the South Fulton girls defeated Humboldt by a 63-51 margin.
The Red Devils boys got burned in the nightcap as the No. 3 Vikings hit nine first-half 3-pointers in a 76-32 rout
On Friday evening, Central hosts Haywood. The Lady Rebels play Liberty in Troy on Saturday, while their male counterparts battle Hickman County in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.
South Fulton is at Greenfield on Friday night.
The following is a roundup of Tuesday’s games as reported to The Messenger by area basketball coaches.
Central sweep Milan
The Lady Rebels led by 10 points after the first, second and third quarters on Tuesday evening.
Brandi Goodman paced Central with 16 points, while Mackenzie Tucker totaled a dozen and Macy Wright offered nine.
“We didn’t play particularly well tonight,” OC girls’ coach Lyle LaRue said. “We pretty much played like I would expect a team that’s coming off a hard-fought double-overtime win to.”
In the nightcap, the Rebels rebounded and led 16-8 after one quarter, 28-18 with three periods complete and 44-31 with eight minutes remaining.
Milan did open the fourth quarter with a 9-0 run, but Central (9-14, 3-10) held off its comeback attempt and escape with a seven-point triumph.
“I thought we came out and gave the same level of intensity I saw against Westview,” Rebel coach Bill Kail said. “Our energy was a lot better and instead of trying to do too much, we stuck to what we do well.”
Jacob Wade had 13 points for the Rebels, while Eric Torres finished with 11.
Tanner Noles and Joshua Gale both finished just shy of double digits with nine and eight tallies, respectively.
SF split with H’boldt
Cross’ 29-point outing was a byproduct of the Devilettes attempt to break Humboldt’s trap.
The sophomore was able to cut to the rim and either get a basket or draw a free throw on many occasions.
All totaled, Cross was 14-of-16 at the charity stripe.
“I thought in the first half we let them have too many offensive rebounds and second chances,” SF girls’ coach Curt Lee said. “Paxton Pair, Paxton Sisson and (Ka-Lon) Martin all stepped up in the second half and prevented them from getting a lot of offensive rebounds.
“That was big for us.”
The Devilettes (13-9, 7-6 in league play) led 16-8 after eight minutes and 26-21 at halftime.
In the nightcap, Humboldt got up 27-8 after one quarter and never looked back.
The Vikings, who have advanced to the Class 1A State Tournament in each of the past two seasons, led 50-22 at halftime and 67-28 with three quarters complete.
The clock ran continuously in the fourth quarter due to the TSSAA’s 35-point mercy rule.
“They jumped on us big and we never could get close,” first-year South Fulton mentor Wes Miller said. “Pretty much, they punched us in the mouth in the first quarter and we never got up.”
Jordan Davis was the only player to finish in double digits for the Red Devils (9-14, 3-10) with 10 tallies.