COLUMBIA — Brookhaven Academy faced a familiar foe in CopiahAcademy Friday night in the semi-finals of the Class AA South StateTournament at Columbia Academy. Brookhaven had defeated Copiahconvincingly in both previous meetings, but the Colonels made surethey wouldn’t go down without a fight Friday night.

Copiah led after one quarter and kept things close beforeBrookhaven went on to a hard fought 57-44 victory to advance to theAA South State Championship game. Brookhaven improved to 30-1 withthe victory. Copiah fell to 14-13.

Brookhaven faced Columbia Academy, which pulled off a huge upsetof Prairie View Academy, whipping the Spartans 61-47 Friday night.Prairie View, ranked No. 2 in the MPSA AA poll, lost only itssecond game all season, and fell into the consolation game withCopiah Academy.

Copiah jumped out to a 12-9 lead over Brookhaven after the firstquarter, but Cougars senior guard Kurt Perkins caught fire, going5-5 from behind the three-point arc in the first half, including adeep three from the left corner as time expired, giving Brookhavena 12 point lead at 30-18 going into the break.

“We didn’t do the little things well in the first half,” saidBrookhaven coach Dale Watts. “Our passing wasn’t crisp and we tooksome bad shots, but we were able to pull it together in the secondhalf.”

Perkins led Brookhaven with a game-high 26 points. He finished6-for-7 from behind the arc. Jeremy Winborne and Seth Davis eachfollowed with 10 points apiece.

Winborne had 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals. Davis was ableto collect 7 blocks, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and four steals.

Jake Guess led Copiah with 16 points. Reed Daniels followed with11 for the Colonels.