COLUMBIA – The Lawrence County Lady Cougars upset heavily-favored North Pike 51-48 on Thursday, earning Coach Vicki Rutland’s girls a berth in the Division 7-4A championship game on Friday. LCHS got 15 points each from Brittany McDuffey and Shayla Kees to avenge two regular-season losses to North Pike.

Just six days earlier, the Lady Jaguars had handled the Lady Cougars by 23 points. The win also assured the Lawrence County girls of hosting a first-round 4A playoff game on Monday night.

The Lawrence County boys made a strong bid to join their girls in the semi-finals. A prohibitive underdog to Jeremy Harrell’s Tylertown Chiefs, the Cougars battled back from a first half deficit to get to within 1 point of Tylertown in the final 90 seconds of the game. Tylertown made free throws in the final minute to earn a 50-43 victory, a spot in the tournament title game and a home playoff game.

“That’s a great win for our girls,” Rutland said. “I’m so proud of them. We really suffered a beat-down at North Pike last week, and it took a lot of gumption on the part of our kids to even think they had a chance tonight.

“Obviously, we’re excited to be in the championship game, but we’re even more excited about getting to play another playoff game at our place. That’s a season-maker.”

The Lady Cougars are not strangers to big playoff games. They’ve been major players in South Mississippi 4A scene for the last three years, advancing to the state title game two seasons ago. Rutland also coached Northeast Jones to a 4A state championship prior to moving to Lawrence County.

The Lady Cougars got off to a bit of a slow start on Thursday, trailing 19-12 after one quarter, as North Pike’s Rickera Martin scored 11 first quarter points. Her half-court heave at the buzzer gave the Lady Jaguars that 7-point lead.

Lawrence County largely dominated the second and third quarters, however, and opened a lead as large as 8 points early in the fourth. The 3-point final margin was as close as North Pike would get.

“We decided to try straight man-to-man against them,” Rutland said, whose girls improved to 14-13, “but just as much of our practice yesterday and today was about believing-about trying to visualize and expect success against this fine team that had really handled us.”

Keys led LCHS with a double-double, adding 10 rebounds to her 15 points. McDuffey had 5 steals to go with her 15 points. Cheltzie Brown came off the bench to score 9 points.

Lance Golmon’s Lady Jaguars were led by Martin, who hit five 3-pointers en route to her 21 points. Nicole Jefferson added 12. North Pike was without leading scorer Zana McCray, whose season ended last week with a serious knee injury.

Tylertown 50, LCHS 43 

Point guard Ladarrious Slocum led Tylertown with 17 points. The Chiefs’ three big men-Xavion Dillon (14), Clarence Youngblood (8), and Ken Bates (6) worked the Cougars over inside, combining for 28 points. Tylertown hit 10 of 12 clutch fourth-quarter free throws.

Brandon Daniels led Pat Bridges’ Cougars, who fell to 14-13, with 15 points. Freshman Phillip Moore added 11.