McCOMB – The Brookhaven Lady Panthers fought off a poor-shootingperformance in their Division 6-4A Tournament opener Wednesday inthe McComb High Gym. The Lady Panthers sacked 18-of-42 (43 percent)free throws and made only 9 field goals, managing to hold off theJim Hill Lady Tigers 37-22.

Jim Hill, the No. 6-seed, is coached by Stanley Jimmerson,finished its season at 5-21.

In other tournament action, the No. 3-seed Wingfield Falconsnarrowly escaped the Lawrence County boys 56-53 and South Pikeeliminated the Lawrence County girls 49-47.

Today’s semifinals feature 4 games. The Brookhaven/Wingfieldgirls tip off at 4 p.m., followed by the Jim Hill/Terry boys at5:30. The McComb/South Pike girls game is set to begin at 7 p.m.,followed by the McComb/Terry boys at 8:30 p.m.

All semifinalists will advance to the championship andconsolation rounds on Friday. They are guaranteed a spot in thefirst round of the South State 4A playoffs, next Monday andTuesday.

Brookhaven 37, Jim Hill 22

“A win is a win,” echoed Brookhaven head coach Billy Holmes. “Wedid not do a good job of hitting our free throws.”

The Lady Panthers (20-11), riding a 7-game winning streak,limited the Lady Tigers to only 5 field goals in the game but hitjust 18 of 42 free throw attempts. Holmes’ squad led 8-1 at the endof the first quarter.

Jim Hill’s lone score came on a free throw by freshmen BridgetTaylor, who finished the game with a team-high 8 points, 12rebounds and 2 blocked shots.

The Lady Tigers outscored Brookhaven 8-4 in the second period,on a trey by Adrian Weston; along with free throws from LakeithaWilliams and Sherrion Thomas (4). Jimmerson’s ballclub stilltrailed 12-9 at the intermission.

“Our defense played well,” added Holmes. “We have to do a betterjob of blocking out.” Holmes was referring to the 34-26 reboundingedge held by the Jackson-based Lady Tigers, which included a 12-9cushion on the offensive boards.

Brookhaven scored all 8 of their points at the free throw lanearea. Senior center Anna Autman (4) led the way with 11 points.Lending support were Kristian McCray with 8 rebounds and 3 steals.Chiquita Rancifer had 9 points, 3 steals and 3 assists. PortiaDickey had 4 steals.

Jim Hill shot 11-for-20 (55 percent) from the charity stripe andcommitted 26 turnovers. Brookhaven had only 17 miscues.

Wingfield 56, Lawrence Co. 53

No. 3 Wingfield got a game-high 17 points from 6-10 centerChristian Marshall. Calvin Cook added 14 points.

The sixth-seeded Cougars got 16 points from Justin Middlebrooke.Justin Lewis added 13 points and Vincent Newsome 11.

South Pike 49 , Lawrence Co. 47

No. 4-seeded South Pike got 16 points from Brittany Flutz and 12from Yolanda Grady.

Lawrence County was led by Ronesha Garner with 18 points. It wasthe final game for LCHS coach Archie Ross who will begin devotingfull-time dutie to his recently elected position of District Onesupervisor.