JACKSON – The Louisville girls had an eight-point lead with five minutes to play, but had to hold on at the end for a 46-42 victory over Lanier in the 4A state semifinals on Monday night
“We made things harder than we should have,” said Louisville coach Kenyon Ross.
The Lady Wildcats will play Ripley for the championship at 6 p.m Thursday at the Mississippi Coliseum.
Louisville led 38-30 before Lanier mounted a comeback. A 3-point basket by Kelsey Neal pulled Lanier within 44-42 with a minute and a half left.
Ross called two timeouts in the final minute as Louisville played keep away. “I told them to stay focused. We had to calm down.”
Lanier forced a jump ball situation with 15.5 seconds left and the alternate possession arrow gave the ball to the Lady Bulldogs.
The ball went to Jamea Smith near the baseline, but she was surrounded by three Louisville players who forced a turnover. Areyanna Hunter came away with the ball and was fouled with 6.6 seconds showing on the clock.
When she missed the front end of a one and one, Lanier still had a chance to tie the score or win the game with a 3-pointer. But Louisville forced another turnover at mid court and Kameron Rogers drove for a layup as time expired.
Louisville led almost the entire game, the biggest lead being nine points, 12-3 in the first quarter and 36-27 on two free throws by Kiersten Ball in the first minute of the fourth quarter.
Lanier led for a total of 43 seconds late in the first half when the lead changed hands four times. Lanier went up 20-19 on a basket by Smith. Two free throws by Ball put Louisville up 21-20. Lanier retook the lead on a basket by Neal, but Louisville led 23-22 at the half on a basket by Lymyia Fifer, her only two points of the game.
“We had to control the tempo. We had to limit turnovers,” Ross said. “We did a better job in the second half of not turning the ball over.”
He felt that a 57-55 victory over Senatobia in the quarterfinals that also went down to the wire helped prepare his players for the final minutes against Lanier.
Hunter led Louisville with 15 points and Ball had 10. Keshuna Luckett had 14 for Lanier.
Lanier lost despite shooting 50 percent from the floor (16-32), including 6-11 on 3-pointers. Louisville was 19-40, but only three of 15 on three point shots.
“That's what we do. I can't change the way our kids play,” Ross said. “We shoot threes and sooner or later they are going to fall.”
In the first game, Ripley made six free throws in the final two minutes for a 45-39 win over Moss Point after Moss Point had scored six straight points to tie the game. Ross watched the game and came away impressed with Ripley, especially with Sierra Jackson, who had 19 points and eight rebounds.
“Ripley is a well coached team,” he said. “We're going to have to find a way to control Jackson.”
Louisville is 26-4 and Lanier finishes 27-4. Lanier entered the game as the state' top-ranked 4A team according to the website MaxPreps. Louisville was second and Ripley (27-5) third.
Ripley had a large contingent of fans who made the 220 mile drive down I-55 for a 4 p.m. game. With the championship game starting two hours later, Ripley will likely have even a larger cheering section.
