Neshoba Central High School's Jaquan Dotson sails in for a lay up between Northeast Lauderdale High School defenders Tuesday night at West Lauderdale High School.

COLLINSVILLE — Neshoba Central High School connected on eight 3-pointers en route to defeating Northeast Lauderdale High School, 64-42, at the West Lauderdale Classic Tuesday.

“I thought we did a real good job of controlling the tempo of the first half,” said Neshoba Central assistant coach Bobby Goodin, who was filling in for head coach Jerry Byrd who was unable to attend the game due to personal reasons. “We tried to create an up-and-down game. We wanted to take it to them and get them in foul trouble.”

Sophomore guard Chayton York led Neshoba in scoring with 19 points, including connecting on five 3-pointers.

“Our coaches put us in the right spot,” York said. “Then our hustle and work ethic just took over from there.”

NCHS (1-1) executed their offense to precision, as they rotated the ball side-to-side before eventually finding the open man.

“We got great execution,” York said. “That’s one thing that we practice and what we really focus on. Our execution (Tuesday) made us effective in our offense.”

For Neshoba, TJ Ben poured in 10 points and Jaquan Dotson chipped in with nine points.

Defensively, the Rockets utilized a half-court trapping defense to suffocate Northeast Lauderdale, and forced multiple turnovers and mental miscues.

“We wanted to put pressure on them and keep them on their heels,” Goodin said. “I thought we were able to do that early. We want to be aggressive and keep them thinking. We didn’t want them to get comfortable.”

Eleven different West Lauderdale (0-2) players saw significant action as coach Lewis Lightsey attempts to iron out a rotation.

“We’re really young,” Lightsey said. “We lost a lot of players from last year’s team. I think we’ve got some depth, but our youth is killing us right now. I think once we get some more game experience, we’ll be a lot better.”

Neshoba jumped out to an 18-8 advantage in the second quarter, but the Trojans answered with a 6-0 run — their best stretch of the game.

Aaron Adams led NELHS in scoring with 11 points, while Harvest Brunson and Rod Jennings each scored eight points.

“I think we can shoot the ball better than what we shot it,” Lightsey said. “I thought our inside guys have got to play better and dominate a little more. They have to make plays for us down in the paint. The point guards had too many turnovers, but that goes back to being a young team facing a 5A opponent who likes to run-and-gun.”

The Rockets took a 15-point advantage into halftime, and maintained a tight grip on the game throughout the second half.

“We knew they were going to bring it to us (in the second half) to try and get back into the game,” Goodin said. “I thought we weathered the storm pretty well.”

The Trojans will be back in action when they host West Lauderdale High School at noon Saturday.

“We’re trying to figure out rotations and trying to figure out depth,” Lightsey said. “We started a different group today than we started last week (against Forest High School). We’ll probably start a different group (against WLHS). We feel like if we can find the right rotations (early on) and get our legs under us and find the right guys we can count on, then we’ll be OK. Then we can find guys who specialize in defense or shooting for us. Again, being young, it may take several games to find that out.”

Meanwhile, Neshoba Central will host Philadelphia High School at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

“We have a long way to go,” Goodin said. “But right now, I think we’re playing pretty well. We’re going to go back to the drawing board, keep putting in the hard work and keep practicing hard.”