SENATOBIA - Third-year duo
Jaylon Sanders and
Joseph Cooper delivered memorable performances on Sophomore Night, but Northwest couldn't secure the win down the stretch in a narrow 82-80 loss to Copiah-Lincoln on Thursday.
Sanders scored a team-high 25 points, marking his 19th double-digit scoring performance of the season and his sixth game over 20 points. Cooper netted 14 points with five assists, good for his 16th game in double figures.
Though Copiah-Lincoln led 5-0 out of the gate, Northwest closed the gap to one and eventually took a 12-9 lead off a jump shot from
Ke'Darius Stampley. From there, the game went back and forth until the final buzzer, with a total of 11 ties and eight lead changes.
After the Wolves briefly regained a two-point advantage four minutes into the game, Northwest responded right back and pushed back to a seven-point lead midway through the first half. However, Copiah-Lincoln stormed back to tie the score at 28 apiece, thanks to a Mike Smith three-pointer with 7:31 left to go.
Northwest led by as many as five down the stretch of the first half, but the two teams mostly traded buckets, with neither group being able to truly pull away. The Rangers were ahead by four with 1:36 left, only for the Wolves to tie things up at 43-43 entering halftime.
Tied up at 50 apiece with 14:35 left in regulation, Copiah-Lincoln went on a 10-3 run to stretch its lead to seven, the largest deficit either team faced all night. Northwest chipped away at the Wolves' momentum, but the visitors remained ahead until Sanders made one of two free throws at the 6:31 mark, tying the contest at 66-66.
Northwest led by seven one more time in the contest, as Cooper's jumper with 2:33 left made it an 80-73 lead for the Rangers. However, Jemario Hersey rallied the troops by scoring the next seven points for the Wolves, punctuated by a game-tying layup with 33 seconds left.
Knotted up at 80 apiece, Northwest missed a basket on its end of the floor, allowing the Wolves to hold for the final shot of regulation. With five seconds left, Andrew Anderson's shot attempt missed, only for A.J. Warnsley to corral the rebound and tip-in the game-winning basket with three seconds to go.
Northwest shot 44 percent from the floor and 44 percent from beyond the arc, but free throw shooting was the biggest dagger. The Rangers finished just 6-of-17 from the line, for a dismal 35 percent, while also being outscored 46-30 in the paint.
Aside from the aforementioned performances of Cooper and Sanders, freshman
Devin Moore also scored 12 points off the bench.
Jordan Johnson was limited to just four points, but led the Rangers with 13 rebounds.
Dylan Canoville paced the Wolves with a 27-point, 17-rebound performance, while Hersey and Cowandric Samuel finished with 16 points each.
With the loss, Northwest sees its season come to an end at 5-18 overall and 3-11 in the MACCC.
