The Varnado Wildcats (8-5) lost at home Friday to the Amite Warriors, 44-35. The Wildcats outscored the Warriors in the second half of the game, but it wasn’t enough to make up for the lead Amite built in the first half.

“We played hard even though they had a size advantage,” said Varnado head coach Paul Meyerchick. “We had problems just scoring points. We need somebody to step up and put the ball in the basket.”

The game was fast paced throughout. Amite was ahead 13-7 at the end of the first quarter, and in the second their trapping press defense made things difficult for the Wildcats. The Warriors outscored the Wildcats 14-6 in the second quarter to build a 27-13 lead going in at the half.

In the third quarter Varnado made up some ground and went into the fourth down 35-24. After back to back scores inside from Keith Allen, who led the Wildcats with 10 points, they found themselves within seven, 35-28, with six minutes to go. That was part of a 7-0 run by Varnado to open the quarter, capped off by a fast break layup by Ladarrius Jefferson that made it 35-31 with 4:40 left to play.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats that was as close as they could get, as Amite stepped up the defense and pulled away to the 44-35 win.

Meyerchick said he was satisfied with his team’s defensive performance but felt his team didn’t shoot well enough to win.

,“I think it shows we played good defense to hold a team like Amite to 44 points. But we missed a lot of shots that we need to make in order to win a game like that,” he said.

In addition to Allen’s 10 points, Varnado got seven points from Donte Carter, six from Jefferson, five each from Delrick Abrams and Dominique Harry and two points from Bryan Miller.