SUMMIT-The McComb Tigers roared to the Division 7-4A basketball championship, beating Lawrence County 57-49 in the boys’ championship game Friday night, at Southwest Mississippi Community College. The tougher-than-expected win improved Hilton Harrell’s Tigers to 26-1 on the season, and propelled McComb into Tuesday’s night playoff opener.

Stacey Mack and Emmanuel Thompson each had 13 points to lead the Tigers, who outscored Lawrence County 21-8 in the decisive second period.

For Pat Bridge’s LCHS Cougars, the week was a success despite the loss. The Cougars played the top-ranked Tigers much tougher than they had in two regular season losses that were both by more than 30 points. Keith Davis led the Cougars with 15 points and 6 rebounds. Gabriel Lewis added 14 points. Phillip Moore had 10 points and 4 assists.

The bigger game for the Cougars was actually on Thursday, a semi-final win over host North Pike that assured Lawrence County of a home playoff game. The Cougars prevailed 56-51 in that one, with Keith Davis exploding for 24 points. Xavius Turner had 21 for the Jaguars.

With those results, Lawrence County enters the playoffs with a record of 12-18 on the season. After a rough start to the campaign, the extremely youthful Cougars battled back to finish in second place in both the regular season division standings, and in the division tournament.

“We’re very proud to get that home game,” Coach Bridges said. “Winning that semi-final game, and earning a playoff game at home, was a great accomplishment for this team. We took our lumps early in the season, but this club has made great improvement.”

The weekend didn’t go quite as well for Vicki Rutland’s Lady Cougars. After beating Purvis in an opening-round game, the LCHS got hammered, 56-28, by South Pike in a Thursday semi-final, and lost to McComb, by a 47-39 score, in Friday’s third-place game.

Those losses mean that the Lady Cougars will have to go on the road, as a huge underdog, in Monday’s opening-round playoff game. The youthful, inexperienced LCHS girls have fought an uphill battle from Day 1 this season. To advance to the South State weekend tournament for a sixth straight season, the Lady Cougars will have to pull a big upset.

“Obviously, fourth place isn’t where you want to finish if you want to go deep in the playoffs,” said Rutland, who coached Northeast Jones to a state title before coming to Lawrence County. But we’re happy to still be playing, and we’ll give it our best shot.”

Against South Pike, Haven Johnson led the Lady Cougars, scoring 13 of their 28 points. MyNekia Frazier led Janice Felder’s Lady Eagles with 15 points.

In Friday’s consolation game, McComb beat Lawrence County for the first time in three tries this season. Destiny Smith led the Lady Tigers with 14 points. Haven Johnson again led LCHS with 12 points. Latasha Rhodes and Destiny Ball added 8 points each. Deneisha Dickson had 5 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals.