The Madison High School Jaguars and Lady Jaguars each improved to 3-1 on the season Friday night with home wins over the Bastrop Rams and Lady Rams in Tallulah.
The varsity boys' team jumped out to an early lead in its matchup with the Rams, but were tied at 10 with Bastrop after one period.
In the second quarter, the Jags took a 22-18 lead and wouldn't trail again in the game. At the end of the three, MHS led 37-28 and widened the gap with a strong fourth period to knock off the Rams by a final score of 66-46.
MHS Head Coach John Holmes said his team is still working hard to gel as a unit early in the season, but is making strides toward that goal with every game.
“We have some chemistry and stuff we still need to work out on offensive,” Holmes said. “Overall, I liked the effort they gave, but there’s still some things we have to work out.”
Holmes said, with each win, his team is getting better as the game goes along.
“We played better the second half," he said. “We got off to a slow start. We picked it up in the second half with our pressure defense. Offensively, we created some turnovers that really led to our offensive success.”
The Lady Jags also added to its win column Friday night, defeating the Lady Rams 44-35.
The Lady Jags led 25-13 heading into halftime, but after a strong third period for the Lady Rams' offense, trailed Bastrop 31-30 at the start of the final quarter. But, MHS pulled away in the fourth period to secure the win.
Lady Jags Head Coach Javin Walker said his team is also working on coming together as a unit, and is also progressing nicely early in the young season.
“I think they did great [Friday night], once they settled down and started to focus on what we showed them in practice,” Walker said. “Once they settled down and implemented some of those things, they were able to come away with the win.”
Walker said he expects his team to continue learning with each passing game.
“We really have a young team, but it’s a deep team,” he said.
Both squads now look ahead, as district matchups loom. As of press time, scores for Tuesday’s home game with General Trass, a District 3 matchup, were not available. For up-to-date scores, visit madisonjournal.com, as well as Facebook and Twitter.
The Jags and Lady Jags will also be in action Friday night, at home, versus Marksville. The girls tip off at 6 p.m., with the boys’ game immediately following.
