Brook girls fall in 4A quarterfinals

Published 6:00 am Monday, March 1, 2004

LAUREL — The 3 Division 6-4A girls representatives (Brookhaven,McComb and South Pike) concluded their seasons in the quarterfinalround of the South State 4A tournament at Northeast Jones’ Gym.

Wayne County’s Dandy Dozen senior guard Ratassia Worsham tossedin a game-high 22 points Thursday to lead the Lady War Eagles to a46-31 win over the Brookhaven Lady Panthers.

In other action, Bay St. Louis eliminated South Jones 58-44,host NE Jones shut down McComb 80-60 and Mendenhall narrowlyescaped South Pike 59-54.

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Today’s semi-final activities involves Wayne County and Bay St.Louis at 6 p.m., followed by NE Jones and Mendenhall at 7:30 p.m.The consolation and championship games will be held Saturday at 6and 7:30 p.m. respectively.

The Lady Panthers (22-13) went toe-to-toe withWayne County in the opening 8 minutes, trailing 9-8. Brookhavenused their inside game, as senior forward Kristian McCray authored13 of her team-high 15 points in the first half. Head Coach BillyHolmes saw his ballclub down 5 points, 22-17 at theintermission.

“Kris (McCray) played a good game,” said Holmes. “She workedhard today.”

Wayne County (26-6) countered with the 5-foot-9 Worsham, an OleMiss signee, who had 14 points in the opening half. She was allover the floor, contributing 9 rebounds and 3 steals for veteranhead coach Gina Skelton.

“We just wanted to come out and play our game,” said Skelton whois in her fifth year at Wayne County, after a long stint at Forest.”We knew that Brookhaven would come in and play good defense.”

The Lady War Eagles took charge in the second half, entertaininga 31-26 lead heading into the final quarter. Skelton’s squad openedthe final stanza with a 13-0 run, taking a 44-31 lead on a basketby Domaneshia Chambers.

Chambers contributed 3 steals and 3 assists to the Wayne Countycause. Kathy Bivens had 4 steals.

Brookhaven ended the scoring drought on a basket by Anna Autmanand a trey by Ashley Leggett.

“We just could not get over the scoring droughts in the end,”added Holmes who has concluded his second season at BHS. “We had anoutstanding season, and I am proud of the girls. They gave a goodeffort for me.”

Lending support for Brookhaven were Latoria Kerr with 4 steals.Chiquita Rancifer dished out 3 assists. McCray had 7 rebounds.

The Lady Panthers were outrebounded 21-19, and committed 24turnovers against 18 by the Lady War Eagles.

Brookhaven loses Autman, McCray, Rancifer and Kerr tograduation.