NATCHEZ — The Brookhaven Academy Cougars captured the MPSASouth State AA title Saturday night following a lopsided 82-40 winover the host Trinity Episcopal School Saints in the ACCSgymnasium.

The Brookhaven Academy boys are the No. 1 seeds out of the Southand will host the State AA Tournament this week. Their opponentwill be the loser of Saturday’s game between Winston and LeakeAcademy. The game will be played either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Brookhaven Academy improved to 31-1 on the season.

Brookhaven struggled in the first quarter but put together a19-17 lead going in to the second quarter. The Cougars outscoredthe Saints 19-7 to take a comfortable 38-19 lead at the half.

A 25-8 run by Brookhaven in the third quarter put the game outof reach as the Cougars maintained a 63-27 lead.

“Overall I was pleased,” said Brookhaven Academy boys coach DaleWatts. “We started off slow. After a short time, we got after itand it went well.”

Powering the 31-3 Brookhaven boys with a double-double, 23points and 11 rebounds, was Jeremy Winborne. Following with atriple-double was Cole Hodges with 16 points,10 rebounds and 11assists.

Seth Davis netted 16 points and pulled down 8 rebounds for theCougars. Scoring 14 points was T-Boy Lynch. Alan Gray fired in 9points, made 4 steals and had 9 assists.

“It was all about playing as a team,” said Winborne. “We made upour mind we were going to play well and we did.”

Selected to the South State team from Brookhaven were Winborne,Hodges, Gray, Lynch and Davis.

Thirteen points by Steven Ridley led Trinity (17-13) inscoring.

In the consolation boys game, Prairie View knocked off CopiahAcademy 70-54. Both teams advance to the state tournament.