By By Marty Stamper/The Meridian Star
Dec. 30, 2001
DECATUR – The Starkville Academy Lady Vols captured the girls' championship of the fifth-annual MPSA Central Mississippi Classic at East Central Community College Saturday night with a 56-29 blowout of Leake Academy.
Starkville outscored the Rebelettes in all four quarters to improve to 18-2.
Washington School took third place in the girls' bracket with Indianola Academy winning the fifth-place contest.
Starkville 56
Leake 29
It isn't every day that the Leake Rebelettes have as many turnovers in a half as they have points. It happened Saturday as the Leake girls trailed 23-9 at halftime and had committed nine turnovers. They had six turnovers before scoring their first points of the game.
But the school record for futility was in doubt for a long time as Starkville opened the second half with a 13-0 run to go up 36-9 before Kristin Caldwell put the Rebelettes in double figures with a jumper with 1:15 remaining in the third quarter.
Leake finished with 21 turnovers against a bigger and more experienced Starkville squad that started five seniors including USM signee Ashley Johnson.
Caldwell led the Rebelettes, 13-4, with 15 points.
Starkville, 18-2, got 18 points from tournament MVP Jessica Wall, 12 from Johnson, and 10 each from Rachel Waldrop and Ciji Garrard.
Washington 61
Central 39
The Lady Generals outscored Central in all four quarters of the third-place game.
Washington led 14-10 after one quarter, 37-20 at halftime, and 49-31 through three quarters.
Central, 6-12, got 14 points from Carrie Coker, nine from Meagan Stokes, six from Penny Smith, and five from Leslie Hancock.
Washington, 10-5, placed four players in double figures. Mary Claire Cadenhead had 15 points, Kristin Bratton had 11, and Lane Fratesi and Lindsey Young had 10 apiece.
Indianola 49
Kemper 37
Indianola built a 42-28 lead over the first three quarters in taking the fifth-place game.
The Lady Colonels got 15 points from Kassie Buck and 12 each from Kimberly Crawford and Britni Weeks as they improved to 10-13.
Kemper, 14-5, got 13 points from Blair Johnson, seven from Leslie Beach, and six each from Eve Darnell and Jessica Harpole.
Indianola led 15-12 after one quarter and carried a 25-19 advantage into halftime. The Lady Colonels upped their lead to 14 points.
Marty Stamper is a sports writer for The Meridian Star. E-mail him at mstamper@themeridianstar.com or call him at 693-1551, ext. 3235.