Meridian’s 7-win streak snapped by Columbus

Published 8:11 am Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Columbus gets a dominate road win.

Behind the play of Mike Hood along with a stingy defense the Falcons raced past Meridian 58-32 in a key non-division matchup on Tuesday night.

“Mike is going to do what he does and get hits, but we’ve had guys step up lately and that’s what key for us,” said Columbus coach Philip Morris. “I think we’re starting to play well and just got a lot of room to improve game by game.”

It was a back-and-forth first quarter that saw the Falcons and Wildcats tied at 12-12 at the end of the quarter.

The second quarter is when Columbus defensively came into play. The Falcons held Meridian to just four points in the period and scored the final five points to end the first half to take a slim 20-16 lead at halftime.

The third quarter the Falcons began to separate themselves as they began the quarter on a 9-4 run to take a 29-20 lead, and then after the Wildcats cut the lead down to 29-24, Columbus ended the quarter on a 10-0 run to take a 39-24 lead. That was the closest the Wildcats got.

With the Falcons leading 45-29 midway through the fourth quarter, Columbus ended the game on a 13-3 run to put the game well out of reach.

“They run some good stuff, very well coaches and got two really good guards, so defensively we tried to blow up their sets and focus in on the guards and went to our zone with our length and that helped us out,” Philips said. “This is a tough place to win at, and Meridian has been playing really well. We start district play on Friday, so the most important part of the season is coming up, and we need to tune up.”

Mike Hood had a game-high 19 points to lead Columbus, while both Preston Harris and Tyson Sims added seven points for the Falcons (7-5).

“We started off in man on defense at first then we went to a zone, and we all communicated and that was key to know where their best player was and key on him,” Hood said. “We were patient on offense and when they rotated on defense that’s when we attacked the glass. Coach talked all week this was going to be different than the last time we played, so we came together and played well.”

Derrick Watts had 13 points to lead Meridian, while Joe Horne added 10 points for the Wildcats (7-4), who saw their 7-game win streak come to an end.

“All credit goes to Columbus. In the second half they took us out of everything we wanted to do with their length. They are such a matchup problem and that’s a really good 7-5 basketball team and I’m putting 5A on notice that is a team that’ll be in the mix when it’s all set and done,” said Meridian coach Ron Norman. “We’ve played some tough along the way, but the new season starts Thursday with district play and we got to protect our home court.”

Both teams begin district play later this week as Meridian hosts Northwest Rankin on Thursday, while Columbus travels to Lafayette on Friday.