GRAND PRAIRIE — The regulation 32 minutes weren’t enough for Waxahachie and South Grand Prairie to decide a winner on Friday night. Neither was one overtime, nor two, nor three.

The Runnin’ Indians forced four extra sessions in all, and junior CJ Noland extended his career best with a 41-point outing, but the host Warriors came out on top, 101-97, handing the Indians their second District 7-6A loss.

BJ Francis added 16 points and AJ Russ 11 for the Indians. WHS ended the first half of the district schedule tied with SGP for second place, two games behind Grand Prairie.

Other scorers for the Tribe were Jalen Lake and Chris Pace with eight points each, Preston Hodge with five, Sammy Kaoud with four and AB Shorter and Jordan Davis with two apiece.

The Indians (22-5, 5-2) trailed 37-32 at the half, but crept closer in the third period, drawing to within 50-48.

Christian Turner had 38 points and 12 rebounds for No. 14 South Grand Prairie (20-6, 5-2).

The Runnin’ Indians plunged to No. 17 in this week’s Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Class 6A poll with the loss.

SGP’s Jaden Flournoy forced overtime by hitting a floater at the buzzer in regulation, and Turner sent the game to a third overtime with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. Then it was Waxahachie’s turn, as Kaoud scored on a putback at the buzzer to extend the game to a fourth overtime.

But by the end of the fourth overtime, four Indians players had fouled out, two (Noland and Kaoud) were playing with four fouls and the team was using its last available bench players.

WHS was scheduled to travel to No. 12 DeSoto on Tuesday night to start the second leg of district play. They will host Cedar Hill on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Mike Turner Gymnasium.


