From No. 3 seed in the Region 5-5A Tournament to the MHSAA Class 5A quarterfinals.

Laurel (16-15) shocked Wayne County (20-6) by a win-margin of 21 points, 53-32, Friday night in the second round of the 5A playoffs. The win sends the Lady Tornadoes to the 5A quarterfinals for the first time since 2017.

“I’ve told our girls all along,” began Lady Tornadoes head coach Sherri Cooley. “You have a lot of talent. You just needed to put it all together and win. Once you know you can win some games against quality programs, then that will give you the ability to believe you’re just as good as any team in the state. I think our girls are now believing that.”

Cooley said the quality of opponents in last week’s 5-5A Tournament helped prepared her team for Friday night.

“I thought that gave us the advantage as far as that was concerned,” added Cooley.

The second and final periods proved to be the difference.

Down 14-7 after the first period, Laurel tied Wayne County at 17-all near the two-minute mark of the second, then proceeded with a 9-0 run to close out the half.

"We started slow," said Cooley. "Defensively, we gave them open looks to Jamia Chambers. And that's what we talked about not doing all week. We started in a zone matchup and made adjustments that I thought helped us. Once we picked up our defense, we started scoring points on offense."

In the final eight-minute period, beginning with a nine-point lead, 35-26, Laurel finished with a 21-point margin of victory.

Junior Zoey Cooley led Laurel with 18 points. X. Singleton and M. Keyes finished in the double-digits as well with 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Laurel held Wayne County’s leading scorer in the paint, Jamia Chambers, to just 13 points. Cooley said slowing down Chambers was the plan coming into the second-round matchup.

“We tried a new defense to start the game off,” Cooley said. “But it didn’t work. When we moved to man-defense, it helped.”

Laurel squares off against Jim Hill in the quarterfinals next Friday afternoon at Pearl River Community College. Tip-off is slated for 4 p.m.