South Point – When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Wednesday, December 22, 1999

South Point – When the going gets tough, the tough get going. The South Pointers got going Tuesday night against the Tolsia Rebels. The Pointers surprised the West Virginia Class AA power by posting an 81-66 win.

"The difference in this game was our toughness," Pointers coach Mark Lafon said.

"This was a big game. And our kids played gritty. We hung in there. I was so proud of them tonight. We didn’t play perfect, but they just stayed with it."

Staying with it included rebounding. The Pointers worked hard on the boards for 44 rebounds with Jarred Perdue pulling down 11 and Chris Robinson 10.

Perdue led five Pointers in double figures with 17. B. J. Ferrell scored 16, Brian Cremeans and Shane Holsinger had 15 each, and Robinson added 10.

Jason Walker paced Tolsia with a game-high 19. J. D. Marcum scored 11 and leading scorer Jay Salmons was held to 10.

"We played very strong defense. B. J. did a great job on Salmons. And we finally took care of the boards. We rebounded very, very well," said Lafon.

Tolsia was up just 7-6 after an aggressive but sloppy first quarter. South Point then outscored the Rebels 24-21 the second quarter to lead 30-28 at the half.

The Pointers lead was 54-45 after three quarters, but Tolsia cut the deficit to 4 early in the fourth quarter.

South Point then went on a run and pushed the lead back to 14 and was never headed, forcing the Rebels to foul.

Tolsia was 16-of-28 from the foul line while South Point was 29-of-43, mostly in the fourth quarter.

South Point, 3-2, hosts Huntington (W.Va.) St. Joe Tuesday, Dec. 28.

TOLSIA – 7 21 17 21 – 66: Brandon Stiltner 9, Odell Witt 5, Kelton Fields 6, Jason Walker 19, Shawn Salmons 0, Jay Salmons 10, Danny Ferguson 2, Jason Hatfield 5, J. D. Marcum 11. Fouls: 24. Fouled out: S. Salmons, Marcum.

SOUTH POINT – 6 24 24 27 – 81: B. J. Ferrell 16, Justin Eaches 3, Brian Cremeans 15, Shane Holsinger 15, Jarred Perdue 17, Bryan Maggard 4, Alan Nevel 0, Willie Anderson 1, Chris Robinson 10. Fouls: 23. Fouled out: None.