Wildcats win 6th straight, beat Pioneers 75-59

In a highly aggressive contest, the Abbeville Wildcats won their sixth straight game with a 75-59 win over Notre Dame at home Friday night.
The two teams went tit-for-tat in the first half, but Abbeville (16-10, 7-1) amped up the defensive pressure and pulled away in the second half to move one step closer to a district title.
“It was a very slow start for us,” said Wildcat head coach Berwick Hamilton. “I don’t know if it was the joy of winning last week, or beating them (Notre Dame) soundly before. They outplayed us in the first quarter for sure and most of the second quarter.”
Notre Dame (11-17, 4-4) held a 6-2 lead to start the game, and clung to a 9-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Pioneers led 12-8 early in the second quarter, but a 8-0 run by Wildcats put them up 16-12, and they never relinquished the lead. They took a 31-25 advantage into halftime.
Abbeville extended their lead to 17 points with a Chazz Duhon 3-pointer to lead 54-37 at the end of three quarters. The Wildcats outscored Notre Dame 23-12 in the third en route to closing out the game in the fourth with the Pios outscoring the Wildcats by one.
“At halftime, we just had to remind them why we are out here, and what it is we want to do,” Hamilton said. “We told them that we can’t count our marbles in the bag, before the game is over. Go out there and take care of business.”
The Wildcats had 13 players score in the game with Dre’vian Evans and Duhon leading the team with 10 points.
Matt Johnson and Clyde Mitchell each added 8 points.
Other scorers were: Jacoby Senegal (4), Kevin Williams (4) Nadaedron Mouton (7), Jourdan Brooks (5), Demarcus Collins (3), Isaiah Antoine (3), Coy Darby (2) and Clements Dorsey (7).
Notre Dame’s Claiton Johnson was the game-high scorer, pouring in 26.
There are two games remaining in the regular season for the Wildcats, and Hamilton said he wants his team to take care of business to finish out the year.
“This was a big win,” he said. “We’re taking each game one at a time. We go to Kaplan Monday, and we’re going to be thinking about that one game. We have to try to finish the season out one at a time.
The Wildcats will be on the road tomorrow when they travel to face the Kaplan Pirates.