The North MS Wildcats (Pontotoc) hit the court bright and early for an 8:00 a.m. tip-off at Windemere Prep High School, home of the WPHS Lakers, to take on RBS 17 (Illinois) in their opening game of the AAU National Championship Tournament.
As expected, both teams struggled in the early goings of the contest, but the tide turned the way of the RBS when a shot after at the horn was ruled good to complete a 9-0 run to close out the first half and tie the game at 27 at the break.
RBS took advantage of a sloppy third quarter by the Wildcats to grab a 39-36 lead at the end of the third.
The Cats switched to a 1-3-1 defense that quickly resulted in turnovers, easy baskets and four-point edge midway through the final frame. The shots stopped falling for the Cats late in the contest allowing a hot-shooting RBS squad to build a five-point lead and make seven of their final eight free throws attempts to pick up a 65-55 victory.
Brandon Blake (Oxford) led the Cats with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
Up next for the Wildcats will be the NFBC Orange Park Suns (Florida) tonight at 9:20 p.m. at the Jostens Center at Disney’s Wide World of Sports. The Suns defeated the Academic Basketball Club (Connecticut) 56-48 to open their Pool Play on Monday.
The Cats will wrap up Pool Play on Wendesday at 11:20 a.m. against ABC at Foundation Academy.
The top two teams from each brackett advances to the Championship Tournament while the bottom two teams will play for the Classic Championship starting on Thursday.
