Tuesday’s high school basketball game between Meridian and Quitman high schools was a reunion of sorts for Panthers head coach Chris Coleman and Wildcats head coach Ron Norman.

After spending time on Norman’s staff at Wayne County High School, Coleman faced former boss with a squad of his own. The teacher bested the pupil Tuesday night as Meridian advanced to 7-0 on the young season after defeating Quitman 77-48.

“I’m very familiar with them,” Coleman said. “We won a state championship in 2011 together. I’ve been coaching against some of (Meridian’s) seniors since they were freshmen. They’re as good as advertised — there’s no doubt about it.” 

Ledarrius Brewer kick-started the first quarter with a slam dunk to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead. Quitman’s Sayveon Bumpers answered with two 3-pointers, but a Meridian scoring barrage, which included baskets by Tyron Brewer and Jay Malone put the Wildcats ahead 8-6. Tereik Hall added a steal and an assist when he found Treamond Pittman for a layup. Bumpers’ hot shooting single-handedly kept Quitman in the game early as he scored 11 of Quitman’s 13 first-quarter points, as Meridian led 19-13 at the end of the opening quarter.

“We didn’t give it all we had — we could have done better,” said Bumpers, who finished with 17 points. “But we’ll see them next game.This game will help us. It helped me see what my weaknesses are, and when we watch film we’ll see what we can do better.”

Both schools traded 3-pointers to begin the second period. Tyron Brewer hit a field goal, and David McCoy added a 3-pointer to make the score 27-16 in Meridian’s favor. Bumpers followed with another field goal. Meridian got a quick seven points after Ledarrius Brewer drained a 3-pointer and a field goal, and Miles Miller hit a jumper to extend Meridian’s lead to 34-21. Ke-Mal Love pulled the Panthers closer to the lead at 38-23, but Tyron Brewer responded with a field goal late in the second to give the Wildcats a 41-23 lead at the half.   

“Our kids just came out and took care of business,” Norman said. “We don’t look at who our opponents are — we just play hard. I know (Quitman) is a smaller school, but we came out and took care of business like a senior-laden team is supposed to do. We just want to get better game after game.”

Miller opened the third with a trey to extend Meridian’s lead to 44-23. Quitman’s LeMarius Jones added a trey of his own during the Panthers’ next possession, and Tyron Brewer responded with a field goal to push Meridian’s lead to 48-26, and he netted a slam dunk to make the score 50-26 before the Panthers called a timeout. Jones drained the Panthers’ 31st point with under two minutes in the third quarter, whittling Meridian’s lead to 52-31. He went to the free-throw line one possession later with a chance at an and-one, which he converted as his shot sailed through the net, putting the score at 52-34 in the Wildcats’ favor, which would stand at the end of the third.

“I was especially proud of LeMarius Jones — he made five 3s off of the bench,” Coleman said. “It was big. He came in and had 20 points, and he’s a sophomore. Tonight I played two seniors — I played sophomores and juniors. Hopefully, we’ll hit a growth spurt from here, and learn from playing quality teams.”

Malone sank two free throws to give Meridian its first baskets of the fourth, and Miller scored after a Quitman error on the inbound pass to move the Wildcats’ lead to 58-34. Ledarrius Brewer swiped the basketball from a Quitman player and finished the play with a slam dunk to put an exclamation point on it, sending Meridian on an eight-point scoring run. Bumpers contributed a steal and a basketball late in the fourth as the Wildcats secured the 77-48 win.

“I feel like we can get a lot better as the season goes on,” Ledarrius Brewer, who scored 11 points, said. “We haven’t even reached our potential. We still have a lot of bonding to do. This is pretty much a new starting five, and we just have to get used to how everybody plays.”

Tyron Brewer paced the Wildcats with 19 points, Miller added 13 and McCoy, Malone Kevin Horne chipped in with seven. 

MERIDIAN GIRLS 61, QUITMAN 32

Meridian’s Lady Wildcats defeated the Lady Panthers 61-32, receiving an all-around effort headlined by Sabrina Boyd’s team-high 17 points. 

“I felt pretty good tonight — I think we worked pretty well together as a team,” Boyd said. “We did well on offense, and we were trying to get better on offense. So I felt like we did better tonight.”

Quitman turned three Meridian missed baskets into an early 4-0 Lady Panthers lead, but Boyd responded with two quick baskets, while TyMesha Reed added a field goal to push the Lady Wildcats ahead 6-4 with under two minutes in the first half. Boyd contributed with a layup late in the period to give her six of Meridian’s eight points. Reed connected on a 3-pointer with two seconds left to give the Wildcats a 13-6 lead at the end of the quarter.

“One of the things we tried to emphasize is scoring around the basket with easy opportunities,” Lady Wildcats head coach Patricia Wilson said. “We finally got it going there.”

Walker opened the second quarter with a trip to the free-throw line, where she hit on one of her two attempts to extend the Lady Wildcats’ lead to 14-6. Quitman’s Raven Jones ended her team’s scoring drought with an open-look, under-the-basket shot, but Boyd extinguished the Lady Panthers’ fire with consecutive baskets to give Meridian an 18-8 lead with 5:24 remaining in the second quarter, before a Quitman timeout. Walker added a basket after the timeout to extend the lead to 20-8. Kierra Bush and Taylor Carter added baskets for Meridian in the period, but Quitman’s Kara Miller gave her team momentum with a 3-pointer, followed by a field goal by Jones to make the score 26-13 in Meridian’s favor. Kenyunis Wooten ignited the home crowd with a trey, and Carter added a two-pointer to out the score 33-13 to close the first half.

“We’ve (also) emphasized feeding the post, which is something we did tonight,” Wilson said. “Hopefully, as the competition continues to come, we’ll get better at that. We’ve been focusing on turning our defense into offense — we’ve been struggling this first part of the season from behind the 3-point line, so we really wanted to get out, jump in the passing lanes and get some easy transition baskets.”

Boyd made a layup to begin the third quarter and give Meridian the 35-13 lead. Dyneshia House put the Lady Panthers on the board in the second half after making one of two free throws to trim the deficit to 35-14, and Lonkerria McCoy chipped in with a field goal to make the score 35-16. Smith responded with two-pointer, giving the Lady Wildcats a 37-16 lead. Breelyn Bigbee, Wooten and Carter gave Meridian baskets in the third period, while Miller added a 3-pointer and two field goals, as the Lady Wildcats led 43-23 at the end of the third. 

McCoy earned a trip to the charity stripe during Quitman’s opening possession of the fourth, where she made both free throws to put the score at 43-25. Meridian’s Jasmine Brown scored her first points of the game to counter a Quitman basket. Boyd scored her 14th point of the game, which put the Wildcats up 47-27 with under six minutes in the fourth. Boyd notched a 3-point play with 5:16 left in the contest, closing the door on Quitman for the rest of the evening as the Lady Wildcats won 61-32.

“I was excited; it was a moment of excitement,” Boyd said of the 3-point play. “Sometimes when you’re having fun on the floor, that happens. I think we played very well.”

Carter ended with 10 and Walker finished with nine points for the Lady Wildcats.

Miller led Quitman with 10 points, and McCoy contributed with seven.