FULTON – Co-Lin and Southwest renew an ancient rivalry tonightin the championship women’s finals of the MJCAA State BasketballTournament. Tipoff is 6 p.m. in the Itawamba Community Collegegymnasium.

Co-Lin (22-2) eliminated Pearl River 67-58 Wednesday night inthe semifinals, beating the Lady Wildcats for the third time thisseason. The Lady Wolves were led by sophomore post Mindy Livaudaiswith a game-high 25 points.

In Wednesday night’s other women’s semifinals game, Southwesteliminated East Central 62-53. The men’s games saw Holmes 66-65over Southwest on a last-second trey and Northwest 88-69 overHinds.

Holmes plays Northwest at 8 tonight in the men’s title game.

“It’s always hard to beat somebody the third time,” said Co-Lincoach Gwyn Young. “We got some girls in foul trouble and they hadto sit out part of the first half.”

Co-Lin took control in the second half and built a 13-pointlead. The Lady Wildcats reduced their deficit to 3 points, 59-56with 4 minutes, 42 seconds left to play.

Co-Lin answered the challenge. Freshman guard Ayme Beeson hit 2field goals, Christy Brown sank a field goal and Nikki Blakelyadded 2 free throws to cement the victory.

Young said Brown twisted her ankle in last night’s game.

Freshman playmaker Tiania Burns , Co-Lin’s leading scorer, wasin early foul trouble. She scored 8 points and had 5 assists.

Co-Lin. ranked No. 8 in the NJCAA national poll, split withSouthwest (19-5) during the regular season. The Lady Wolves were53-48 winners last Thursday night in Wesson.

Asked about tonight’s strategy for Southwest, Young said, “Weare going to have to cut out Southwest’s transition baskets and notlet No. 14 (Traci Forrest) have any open shots,” said Young. “Weneed to keep (Nakia) Downing off the boards, too.”

Pearl River (15-8) got 19 points from Dee Flennory and 18 fromAudosha Kelly.

In the Lady ‘Cats’ 70-60 first-round victory over host ItawambaTuesday, two starters guard Jessica Welborn of Kenner, La., andforward Kristie McKinley of Hattiesburg both suffered severe anklesprains and saw limited action against

the nationally-ranked Lady Wolves.

“We weren’t hitting on all cylinders with those two down,” saidPRCC head coach Ed Walley. “Kristie got in more playing tonightthan Jessica, but she wasn’t nearly up to par with that ankle.Jessica tried to play a couple of minutes, but just couldn’t. Bothof them are key starters for us.”

Southwest 62, E. Central 53

Natahsa Booth pumped in 22 points as Southwest beat EastCentral. Downing, a 6-foot- freshman, added 15 points.

@Bbstandings:

Co-Lin 67, Pearl River 58

Pearl River (58) Dee Flennory 19, Audosha Kelly 18, Gray4, McKinley 4, Wilson 2, Newsome 8, Fulton 2.

Co-Lin (67) Mindy Livaudais 25, Beeson 4, Altman 6,Burns 9, Blakely 7, Brown 8, Smith 8.

Halftime score: Co-Lin 32, Pearl River 25.

Total fouls: Co-Lin 18. Pearl River 17. Fouledout-Flennory.

Free Throws M-A: Co-Lin 9-10. Pearl River18-23.

3-point goals: Burns, Livaudais.

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