April Kennedy broke Bogue Chitto’s heart Thursday in thesemifinals of the Division 7-1A Basketball Tournament. Kennedy’slast-second trey from the top of the key lifted the Lady Bears to athrilling 48-47 comeback win over the Lady ‘Cats in the Enterprisegymnasium

West Lincoln (18-7) advances to tonight’s 7 p.m. championshipgame against Enterprise. Win or lose, the Lady Bears will be homeMonday night for the opening round of the South Mississippiplayoffs.

West Lincoln’s boys also reached tonight’s 8:30 title game witha 75-64 win over the Dexter Bulldogs and they play No. 1 seed St.Aloysius. Powering the Bears were guard Shane Lynch and centerBradleigh Rice with 28 and 23 points respectively.

The Lady Bears erased a 15-point, 41-26,deficit in the final 7:35 of the game. A full-court press broughtthem back from apparent defeat.

“I’m still in shock,” said Kennedy after the game. “I knew I hadto shoot it. I was hoping Britnee (Smith) wouldn’t pass it tome.”

Smith sparked the Lady Bears with 17 points, sacking 2fourth-quarter treys. Teammate and senior forward Candy Herring wasin early foul trouble and held to 7 points. She fouled out with3:23 left to play.

Leading 19-18 at halftime, Bogue Chitto had dominated the thirdquarter, outrebounding the Lady Bears 13-2 and building a 13-pointlead as Kimberlee Thomas scored 7 points and grabbed 6rebounds.

The Lady ‘Cats (14-11), coached by Christi Terrell, missed 4 of5 free throw attempts in the last 3 minutes of the game. They’llplay in the 4 p.m. consolation game today.

After Terrell called a timeout with 9 seconds left and her teamholding a 47-45 lead, West Lincoln coach Lane Young huddled withhis team.

“After that last Bogue Chitto timeout, I said, ‘Somebody makethe winning shot.’ Even when we got behind, we kept playinghard.”

Smith’s trey, from 22 feet away, pulled her team within 1 point,46-45, with 1 minute left to play. The Lady ‘Cats missed 2 freethrows in the final 32 seconds.

On the backboards, Kennedy accounted for 9 rebounds. TalashiaFells had 9 points and 9 rebounds. Erica Shaw made 8 assists.

“I knew we were going to come back,” said Kennedy. “We wanted itmore.”

Guard Meleah Brown led BC with 16 points. Thomas accounted for10 points and 17 rebounds. Center Shasta Porter scored 13 pointsand grabbed 6 rebounds before fouling out with 3:33 left to playand BC leading 44-37.

The Bears (21-4)

will be home in Jack Case Gymnasium Tuesday night for theopening round of the South Mississippi playoffs. Dexter (18-11),minus a home gymnasium because of Hurricane Katrina, will play inthe consolation game and settle for another road test nextweek.

“Bradleigh Rice, Jeremy Byrd and Stephen Jones really reboundedthe ball well, especially in the first half,” said Coach Young.”Now we know we’ll have a home game next week.”

Rice accounted for 13 rebounds and Jones had 12 boards as theBears derailed Dexter’s inside game.

Senior forward Rico Haynes powered the Bulldogs with 22points.

“Rico was in foul trouble and that hurt him,” said Young. “Weknew he would have to score in the upper 30s to stay close. Coach(Steve) Fortenberry’s team never quit.”

The Bulldogs found themselves down by 16 points, 47-31, onRice’s putback with 3:59 left in the third quarter. They reducedtheir deficit to 8 points, 55-47, with on a putback by Haynes with5:56 left in the game.

The Bears broke Dexter’s press and Lynch canned back-to-backtreys to cool the rally. A Rice field goal, plus 2 free throws anda layup by Jones, increased the advantage to 20 points, 69-49, with3:16 remaining.

Aaron Shaw handed out 5 assists in the victory.