By By Rocky Higginbotham/The Meridian Star
December 2, 2000
With Crystal Springs' upset of top-ranked Jackson Murrah earlier this week, Meridian High's girls would like to stake their claim to the No. 1 ranking in the state.
Friday night, the Lady Wildcats certainly looked like they could be the state's best team.
Meridian jumped all over visiting Wayne County with a smothering defense early, and coasted to a 79-57 win over the Lady War Eagles.
The contest was the Division 5-5A opener for both teams. MHS, which is currently ranked No. 2, improved to 11-0. Wayne County fell to 8-3, with two of those losses coming at the hands of Meridian.
According to Wayne County head coach Gina Skelton, Shirley was right on the money.
Skelton inherited just two starters from last year's Lady War Eagle squad.
Friday, the Lady War Eagles couldn't recover from Meridian's 16-3 run to open the game, and things only got worse in the second period.
MHS got three-pointers from Cassandra Harris and Kierra Williams in the opening minutes of the second quarter, exploding for 18 points in a four-minute span to go up 36-11.
Meridian led 42-21 at halftime, and the Lady Wildcats' lead was never any fewer than 18 points in the second half.
In fact, every time Wayne County put together a mini-run in hopes of getting back into the contest, MHS answered with momentum-killing baskets from senior post players Cantea Brown and Kanecia Williams.
Brown had game-highs of 25 points, 13 rebounds and five steals, while Kanecia Williams scored 17 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Collier finished with 11 points, Harris scored eight and Mosley had six points, five assists and four steals.
MHS played without starting forward Chelse Alford, who has a torn ACL. Shirley said her status for the rest of the season is unknown.
Wayne County got 19 points, 11 rebounds and four steals from sophomore Carla Bartee and 10 points apiece from Natalie Jordan and Sharkeshia Jordan. Sabrina Howard dished out three assists.
The Lady War Eagles will be in action again Tuesday when they host Quitman. Meridian won't play again until Dec. 8 at Newton County.
Rocky Higginbotham is a sports writer for The Meridian Star. E-mail him at rhigginbotham@themeridianstar.com.