JACKSON – Bogue Chitto’s Cinderella season came to an abrupt endThursday afternoon, thanks to a buzzsaw known as Myrtle.

The Lady Hawks roared out to a 17-3 lead and never looked backen route to an 82-50 victory over the Lady Bobcats in thesemifinals of the 1A Girls State Tournament at the MississippiColiseum. The win sends Myrtle (33-3) to the 1A championship gameagainst Lake (33-3) Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. Lake advanced witha 59-58 win over Durant in the semifinals. Bogue Chitto finishedthe season 24-10.

“This is the first time this year that a press really affectedus,” said Lady Bobcat coach Mickey Myers. “We turned the ball over21 times and you just can’t do that and hope to have anychance.”

Myers said that Myrtle’s use of the 1-2-1-1 trap defense wasvery effective.

“The first quarter when we fell behind by some 14 points reallydisrupted our style of play,” said Myers. “In the second quarter wemanaged to handle the press much better and cut the lead to 12, butin the third quarter Myrtle came out smoking.”

The Lady Bobcats trailed 23-9 to begin the second quarter, but aBogue Chitto 6-0 run cut the lead to 23-15. That would be as closeas they would get.

“I’m not going to let what happened today tarnish this season,”said Myers. “We weren’t expected to get this far this year. Lastyear’s loss here in the Coliseum to Scott Central was devastating,and knowing what players we lost, a lot of people thought it wouldbe a long shot to get back. They hoped we’d return because that’sthe type of expectations our fans have grown accustom to.”

Any hopes Bogue Chitto had of a comeback were shattered in thethird quarter when Myrtle outscored the shell-shocked Lady Bobcats31-9. Sophomore Armintie Price scored 12 of her game-high 30 pointsin that span to blow the game wide open.

“Give credit to Myrtle,” said Myers. “They have a very good 1Abasketball team and Armintie (Price) is a good athlete. She canscore and she can jump. She compliments Priscilla (Berry) verywell. They’re two of the better basketball players in the state.”Berry finished with 19 points.

Myers said that he told his team to “hold their heads high”after the defeat.

“There’s nothing I can say to erase the way we all feel,” hesaid. “Life goes on and we will just have to regroup and work extrahard to improve. This is a young team and they can only get better.There are a lot of teams who never make it this far. We’refortunate to have such a tradition here at Bogue Chitto.”

Randi Moak and Jerrica McGary each scored 13 points to leadBogue Chitto. Yolanda Drummond finished with 8, Kristen Hatten 6and Jessica Melton and Marquita Ratcliff each tallied 5. Moak andMelton each pulled down 5 rebounds, had 3 steals and dished out 3assists to lead the Lady Bobcats.

Myrtle 82, Bogue Chitto 50

Myrtle (82) Armintie Price 30, Priscilla Berry 19, Yates 15,Robbins 8, Hall 6, Craig 2, Pickens 2.

Bogue Chitto (50) Randi Moak 13, Jerrica McGary 13, Drummond 8,Hatten 6, Melton 5, Ratcliff 5.

Total Fouls: Myrtle 13. Bogue Chitto 17. Fouled Out – Drummond.Technicals – None.

Free Throws M-A: Myrtle 18-24. Bogue Chitto 6-11.

3-point goals: Yates 2, Moak, Melton.