By By Fredie Carmichael/The Meridian Star
June 23, 2001
Well, it might not have happened exactly the way that head coach Donald Shirley had planned, but his Lady Wildcats were still unbeaten in State Games play by press time on Friday. After beating Quitman by four Thursday, the Lady Cats held on to best Northeast 38-31 in its first game on Friday at Meridian High School.
Northeast fell behind by 4-0 early, but went ahead 5-4 on five straight points from Quin Jackson. Jackson converted a three-point play for the first three points for the Lady Trojans and quickly followed that up with an offensive put back.
MHS's Stefanie Mosley took over from there. With nothing clicking on offense, the senior guard ignited the Lady Cats on a 12-2 run that had her team up 16-7 with 5:15 left in the half. Mosley consistently penetrated the lane and made two no-look bullet passes in the lane to Alexis Simmons for easy lay-ins.
NEHS cut it to 22-15 with 1:38 remaining in the half but Mosley once again took control on offense. Mosley netted a penetrating runner in the lane and dished out an assist to Latisha Jones that put MHS on top 26-15 at the half.
The Lady Cats fought off NEHS in the second half and walked off the court with its second low scoring victory by a 38-31 final. "Our consistency is not what we want it to be but we're playing better and better each time out and that's encouraging," Shirley said.
In other girls action on Friday, cross-county rivals West Lauderdale and defending 3-A state champions Southeast went at it at Meridian Community College's Ivy Sports Center. The Lady Knights' Kristina Gardner poured in a game-high 24 points to lead WLHS to a 58-35 victory. West Lauderdale is now 2-0 in the tournament heading into today's action.
Southeast won its second game of the day with a 53-34 triumph of Walnut. Sam Smith and Ebony Moore led the way in scoring for the Lady Tigers with 12 and 10 points respectively.
Clarkdale, playing a MHS, split a pair of its contests on Friday. The Lady Bulldogs defeated Indianola Academy 38-35 and dropped a 37-29 decision to Quitman.
Southeast and Meridian were both schedule to play late games on Friday at MCC and MHS. Southeast faced Laurel at MCC, while MHS played Yazoo County on its home court. Both games's scores were unavailable by press time.
Fredie Carmichael is a staff writer for The Meridian Star., call him at 693-1551, ext. 3228 or E-mail him at fcarmichael@themeridianstar.com.