Lady Hornets roll on to finals

By By Matt Barrett/staff writer
Feb. 15, 2002
UNION The defending Class 1A Girls State Basketball Champions assured themselves of reaching the next round of the the playoffs with a 69-48 win over Thomastown in the semifinals of the District 6-1A Tournament on Thursday night.
The Lady Hornets of Lake High School, now 26-3 on the year, will take on Sebastopol in Friday night's finals.
In other Thursday night action the Sebastopol girls beat Union 59-47, the Thomastown boys beat Sebastopol 80-61 and Union beat Pelahatchie 62-50.
Tonight's boys finals have Thomastown and Union meeting at 7:30. The girls game tips off at 6.
Lake 69
T Town 48
Lake fell behind 14-11 early before rebounding for the 21-point win.
Lake capitalized on the opportunity scoring eight points in two minutes. Latoyia Hunt's hustle helped Lake maintain it's lead going into the half. Lake went into the break with a comfortable 41-27 lead.
The two teams only scored a combined 18 points in the third quarter. Lake lead the Lady Bulldogs going into the final period 52-34. Shariece Towner hit a three 30 seconds into the final quarter for Lake. Lake went on a nine-point run before the Lady Bulldogs Jay Harris hit an out side three pointer. With four minutes remaining in the game Lake lead the Lady Bulldogs 64-37.
Lake was led in scoring by Cox and Rogers with 17 points each, while Towner hit for nine.
Union boys 62
Pelahatchie 50
Union fell behind 13-11 at the end of the first before rallying to take the 12-point win and a spot in tonight's finals.
Prentiss Evans scored 18 points to lead the 18-10 Yellowjackets, while Derrick Harris hit for 12. John Stokes scored 18 to lead PHS, while Jaquin Harper knocked down 14.
Union led 28-21 at the half and 45-29 after three quarters of play.
Sebastopol 59
Union girls 47
The Lady Bobcats of Sebastopol outscored Union 16-9 in the third quarter to stretch their four-point halftime lead to 40-29 going into the final quarter of play.
Sebastopol then outscored Union 19-18 in the final quarter to take the win.
Sebastopol was on the board first with a bucket from team captain Laquita Triplett. Union was quick to answer when LaSaundra Harrison found Marley Smith for two. Both teams played very aggressively in the first half. Union's battle to gain control of the middle started early and lasted the whole game. Sebastopol only scored five buckets from outside the paint the entire game. Triplett scored four points in the quarter and accounted for three assists. The teams ended the quarter in a 12-12 tie.
Triplet started the period off for the Lady Jackets with a three-pointer in the first 30 seconds. The Lady Bobcats hit a streak and had seven unanswered points . The Lady Jackets did not find the goal again until 4:30 remaining in the quarter. Smith hit a jumper to tie the two teams at 17. Sebastopol scored seven more points in the last two minutes of the half. Madison Brantley hit a three pointer at the buzzer to send Union to the locker room down by just four at 24-20.
Union had problems controlling the middle in the third quarter. Freshman Ashley Johnson had five points for The Lady Bobcats and controlled the boards. Harrison started the half for Union with an early three. Johnson's defensive efforts helped to keep Union from scoring until three minutes remaining in the period. Madison hit a pair of free throws for Union with three minutes on the clock. Curbie Buckley's half-court steal and bucket left union trailing 28-33. Union would get outscored in the remaining two minutes 6-2. The score going into the final eight minutes was Sebastopol 40, Union 29.
Johnson led Sebastopol with 25 points, while Harrison scored 17 for Union. Brantley scored 10 for the Lady Jackets.
Thomastown boys 80
Sebastopol 61
The Thomastown Bulldogs jumped out to an early 21-10 lead and then fought off a Sebastopol rally in the second quarter on the way to the 80-61 win.
Sebastopol hit a streak late in the second period outscoring the Bulldogs 21-20 in the period, but Thomastown led 41-31 at the half.
The third quarter was the lowest scoring of the game. The Bulldogs led going into the final quarter 58-45.
Gerrick Nicholes and David Harper scored 26 points each to lead Thomastown. Sylvester Snow and Curtis Price scored 15 points each for Sebastopol.