The Brookhaven Academy Cougars won a pair of closely contested basketball games on Friday in John R. Gray Gymnasium over their MAIS District 3-5A competitors from Columbia Academy.

Brookhaven Academy didn’t have much trouble with Columbia Academy when the teams met earlier this month in Marion County for a girls’ matchup, winning 51-18.

The rematch on Friday was a tighter tilt, as the Cougars from Columbia kept things close for a time before the home team Cougars, wearing blue and white, grabbed a 47-37 win.

CA won the boys’ game when the teams last played on Jan. 8, but Brookhaven Academy got a slice of revenge with a 59-48 win on Friday.

The regular season ends this week for BA and the Cougars, barring some terrible collapse, will send both teams to the MAIS 5A South State Tournament, which will be hosted by Parklane Academy, beginning on Feb. 4.

The Brookhaven Academy girls are on track to end up as the third seed out of their district after suffering a road loss 47-38 at Oak Forest Academy on Saturday.

That game, played at OFA in Amite City, Louisiana, had been moved to the weekend following the wintery weather earlier in the week. Oak Forest split their regular season matchup with both Parklane and BA, while the Cougars were swept by Parklane, who’ll finish first ahead of second place Oak Forest.

Oak Forest also won the boys’ game 70-39 on Saturday over the Cougars. The Yellow Jackets from OFA are 25-2 overall and one of the favorites in the MAIS 5A ranks. They’ll finish atop of the division while BA, Parklane, and Columbia Academy are locked in a battle for second, third, and fourth place that will get sorted out this week.

The South State Tournament has the top four teams from District 3, which is made up of Brookhaven Academy, Columbia Academy, Oak Forest Academy, Parklane Academy, Bowling Green School, and Silliman Institute playing the top four teams out of MAIS District 4-5A. District 4 schools are Adams County Christian School, St. Aloysius Catholic, Cathedral School, and Copiah Academy.

Brookhaven Academy closes out the regular season this week with Silliman Institute at home on Tuesday and a road trip to Bowling Green in Franklinton, Louisiana on Thursday, Jan. 30.

The game against Silliman will be the final time for BA seniors Ella Smitha, Ainsley Orr, and Carter Davis to suit up in Gray Gymnasium.

Smith, the leading scorer on the girls’ team, battled foul trouble on Friday, finishing with a game high 21 points for BA head coach Drake Flowers. She scored six of her teams eight points in the third quarter, which ended with BA leading 36-31.

The game was won in the fourth quarter, as Brookhaven outscored Columbia 11-6 in the final eight minutes.

Smith scored four points over the final quarter while sophomore guard Bailey Douglas knocked down a 3-pointer in the fourth and the Cougars also got two points each from sophomore Anne Rylea Thurman and junior Susanna Tate in the frame.

Thurman finished with 13 points, nine of which came in the second quarter, when Brookhaven Academy used full-court pressure to quicken the pace of the game and outscore CA 18-12 in the most well-played portion of the game.

Flowers started Tate, Thurman, Smith, Douglas and Orr on Friday with Mary Anson Tate, Caroline Case, and Ruth Ellen Gates being the first subs off the bench.

Susanna Tate scored eight points, Douglas finished with three points, and Orr rounded out the scoring with two points.

Columbia Academy and coach Reid McCay were led by Carlee Pounds with 15 points. The visiting Cougars made seven 3-pointers on the night, which was a big reason this game was closer than the first meeting between the schools.

“They did a much better job of handling our pressure early tonight as opposed to the first time we played them,” said Flowers. “We had a few defensive breakdowns tonight at times where we let a 3-point shooter get loose, but I think credit goes to them for making shots. We’ve got to be tougher when it comes to not stepping back and trying to catch our breath when we’re using pressure. We’re still a work in progress at that, but I was proud of how we stepped up and gave that effort when we needed it to close the game out.”

BA sits at 16-12 on the season ahead of the Silliman game on Tuesday.

Columbia Academy won the boys’ matchup 40-34 when the teams met for the first time this season. BA head coach Josh Watts knew his team needed to beat CA, coached by his father Dale Watts, by at least seven or more points for possible tie breaking purposes.

It looked like that wouldn’t be a problem for much of the night, as the homesteading Cougars held a 20-point lead in the second half over their orange clad rivals from Columbia.

The lead dwindled down as Columbia scrambled late to force turnovers and score in transition, but a block by 6-foot-7 junior forward Madden Coleman in the waning seconds gave Brookhaven Academy the ball back one more time and kept the margin of victory at 10 points.

It was fitting that Coleman kept the score where it was as his play was a big reason that BA finished on top.

Coleman finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds, and six blocks.

The play of Coleman and fellow junior forward Carson Mowdy inside was the difference in the game as Mowdy finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Mowdy had seven points in the first half and his contributions in the front court were big, as Columbia pressured BA’s freshman point guard Carter “Bubba” Coleman and leading scorer Carter Davis in the back court throughout the game.

“Carson Mowdy was a junkyard dog for us tonight with his effort and energy,” said Watts. “That set the tone for us early and it helped when Carter Evans knocked down a couple of 3-pointers in the first quarter. When teams are making an effort to take Carter Davis out of the offense by staying tight on him, we need Madden to have the kind of night he had tonight to lead us.”

Evans, a sophomore guard, finished with 11 points. Carter Coleman scored nine points and Davis finished with seven points.

The BA boys are currently 15-9 overall on the year.

Reed Duncan, a highly touted baseball prospect from Columbia Academy, finished with 18 points to lead his team in the loss.