Both the Hattiesburg Lady Tigers and Tigers captured Region 7-5A Tournament titles Friday night with wins in the championship round.
Hattiesburg Lady Tigers 50, North Pike 28
Led by Melyia Grayson’s 18 points and a stifling defensive performance, the Lady Tigers captured their fourth straight region title, improving to 22-6 on the season.
“I’m extremely proud of them,” Hattiesburg head coach Caronica Jackson said. “We set goals. One was to be regular season champs, and we finished the regular season undefeated [in district play]. Then you start it all over again with the tournament and beat everybody all over again to win that, and we’ve done that.”
Jackson said she challenged her team to step up on the defensive end against North Pike. Safe to say her Lady Tigers were up for that challenge after allowing just 15 points through three quarters of Friday’s game.
“That was our game plan. The first game we focused on offense,” Jackson said. “This game, I said we needed to step up our defensive pressure after watching the first two games we played. I told them we didn’t do a good job defensively, and they took the challenge. They came out and played really well on defense tonight.”
Behind Grayson, Terralyn Ulmer finished with 10 points, while Ty Vance chipped in 9 for the Lady Tigers, who earned a bye in next week’s first round of the Class 5A playoffs.
“I think the girls are focused,” Jackson said. “They have a goal and are focused on what we’re trying to do. I’m excited about it.”
Hattiesburg Tigers 49, Pearl River Central 47
After being swept by the Blue Devils in the regular season, Ernie Watson’s Hattiesburg Tigers exacted a little revenge in Friday’s championship game.
For about a quarter, it looked like Pearl River Central was on track to beat Hattiesburg for a third time after racing out to a 17-10 lead. But the Tigers responded and turned up the defensive pressure. That was a must going against the Blue Devils’ array of talented sharpshooters, including AJ Banks, the Region 7-5A Tournament MVP.
“We had to [play better defensively]. They’ve got the MVP [Banks] over there,” Watson said. “We were just trying to make sure the other ones didn’t get loose, because we knew he and [Willie] Reece was going to get theirs.”
Banks finished with a game-high 21 points, while Reece added 16 for Pearl River Central. Behind those two, the rest of the Blue Devils combined for just 11 points.
Mission accomplished. Watson’s Tigers fought back from a halftime deficit, built a double digit lead in the fourth quarter and held off a comeback attempt late. It’s been that type of year for the Tigers, said Watson.
“It’s been a trying year, because we’re a young ball club, even though we have seven seniors. The better players are sophomores. But it’s been a good year as far as trying to build character for the future. I’m proud of them for getting this far. To be the number one seed, win the district tournament and revenge a game to a team we got beat twice by this year.”
Cameron Brown led Hattiesburg in Friday’s game with 17 points. Matias Pruitt added 10 for the Tigers, who improved to 19-10 and earned a first round playoff bye with the win.
