TUPELO - A determined David Gardner took the floor against the Caledonia Confederates Thursday night after a disappointing showing against the Tupelo Golden Wave in Tuesday's opening round of the Tupelo High School Tip-Off Challenge.

A 92-62 loss to Tupelo sparked the Okolona Chieftains to a 84-61 win over Caledonia behind Gardner's 37-point, 16-rebound performance.

"The Tupelo game was a big loss for us," said Garner, "we wanted to come out and play real hard to make up for the way we played in that game."

Dialan Blanchard and Martivis Hill added 11 points each in the win. Ricky McCollum led Caledonia with 24 points on the night.

Okolona had their opportunities to put the game away early, but Caledonia went on a 9-2 run to close the gap to 33-29 at the half before the Chieftains could put the game away midway through the third quarter.

"I thought we had a chance to be up more than we were in the first half, but we made some unforced mistakes and that's typical because we only have we've only got two experienced players on the team right now," said Okolona head coach Bobby Ford.

Okolona is currently missing three probably starters and more players still playing football that are expected to contribute to the lineup this season.

"We've got to play hard because all the football players aren't here yet. We've only got seven players so everybody has got to come out and play hard," Gardner.

"This is the first time a lot of these guys are getting to play and we just have to get them to settle down and play with more focus," said Coach Ford.

Gardner scored 24 and Blanchard added 16 in the loss to Tupelo.

Okolona girls

split in Challenge

Quindella Ford scored 25 while Ravin Barr added 11 points in the Lady Chieftains 41-39 win over the Caledonia Lady Confederates on Thursday. The Lady Chieftains dropped a 58-44 decision to host Tupelo Lady Golden Wave on Tuesday despite a 30-point effort from Ford.