Rochelle — Wilcox High’s basketball teams continued to do their normal things during Friday night basketball action against Echols County and that meant the news for it was again both good and bad.

First, for the good. Coach George Kennedy’s Patriots thrashed the visiting Wildcats 60-43 to follow up on their earlier 78-68 road win over them and better their record to 12-3 overall, 6-1 in Region 2-A play.

Now, for the bad. Coach Santita Coon’s Lady Patriots saw their record dip to 3-9, 1-6 when they fell victim 42-20 to a Lady Wildcats team that had drilled them 64-21 in Statenville on Dec. 15.

Both Wilcox squads have three more starts ahead of them this coming week, visiting Irwin County on Tuesday and Charlton County on Friday before hosting Telfair County on Saturday.

Patriots 63, Wildcats 43

After getting off to a sluggish start while taking a 10-9 first period lead, the Patriots came to life with a 21-point second quarter that helped them move out front 31-22 at intermission.

Stout defensive play in the third stanza enabled Wilcox to hold its guest to just five points in that eight-minute span while upping its advantage to 47-27 heading into the final turn. The 16-13 edge Echols held then wasn’t enough to give the home team and its fans a late scare.

“We continue to stay with our 1-3-1 half-court trap and full-court press as we basically just try to wear our opponents down,” Kennedy said in reflecting upon his team’s defensive prowess.

“We’re still not doing a very good job, though, of blocking out under the boards especially on the offensive end where we’re not getting the second and third scoring chances we should be having.”

Despite the absence of Jonathan “Bug” Howard who was away on a football recruiting visit to the University of North Carolina, Wilcox still had three men reach double digits in points. They were Makail Grace, 15, and Calvin Rawls and A.J. Benjamin, 10 each.

Dalton Castleberry and Joe Joe Bennett connected for 12 and 11 points, respectively, for Echols.

Score by Quarters

Echols County 9-13-5-16 — 43

Wilcox County 10-21-16-13 — 60

Scoring

Echols County (43) — Dante Fluker 9, Phil King 3, James Mulgrew 2, Dalton Castleberry 12, Joe Joe Bennett 11, Shane Collier 6.

Team totals: field goals 18; free throws 3 of 8 (37.5%); fouls 11; 3-pointers — King 1, Bennett 3; fouled out — none.

Wilcox County (60) — Telly Whitfield, Quinn Tisdol 7, Larry Munford 4, Makail Grace 15, Anthony Sailor, Calvin Rawls 10, Michael Everson, Antwan Benjamin 6, A.J. Benjamin 10, Johnny Dwight 8, Jay Brown.

Team totals: field goals 27; free throws 2 of 7 (28.6%); fouls 11; 3-pointers — Tisdol 1, Grace 1, A.J. Benjamin 2; fouled out — none.

Lady ’Cats 42, Lady Pats 20

Having snapped their four-game losing streak three nights earlier with a win over Telfair County, the Lady Patriots came into this one hoping to post back-to-back victories for the first time this season.

They came nowhere near doing so, though. Offensively, they never had a double-digit quarter in scoring and defensively they allowed the Lady Wildcats to do so in three of the four periods.

“We missed easy baskets; failed to catch passes we should have caught, and committed way too many unforced errors,” Coon said in evaluating her team’s performance. “We got outhustled and outrebounded, too.

“Our defense was decent, but because of all the turnovers we committed we couldn’t capitalize on that fact as we continue to show the inconsistency that is the earmark of young teams which play up one game and down the next.”

In sinking 14 points for Echols County, Christina Blair emerged as the only double-digit scorer in the game. Dasja Daniels was high for Wilcox with six.

Score by Quarters

Echols County 11-13-10-8 — 42

Wilcox County 2-6-5-7 — 20

Scoring

Echols (42) — Kameron Coggins 7, Christine Blair 14, Amy Staten 4, Sadie Jones 4, Keondra Williams 8, Alyssa Ellenberg 2, Logan Hill 3.

Team totals: field goals 20; free throws 2 of 9 (22.2%); fouls 16; 3-pointers — none; fouled out — none.

Wilcox (20) — Shawnjirah Grace, Dasjia Daniels 6, Tyonna Wright, Kierra Lane, Kadada Martin 4, Shantia Lawson, Jada Curry 2, Erica Jackson 2, Takayla Mahoganey 4, Shonterria Thompson, Miracle Jones 2.

Team totals: field goals 6; free throws 7 of 18 (39.5%); fouls 12; 3-pointers — Mahoganey 1; fouled out — none.