WESSON — The Loyd Star Lady Hornets showed a lot of patience inthe first half when they struggled offensively. It paid off in thesecond half and the Loyd Star girls outscored the Wesson LadyCobras 23-14 on their way to a 47-37 Division 6-2A win Friday nightbefore a capacity crowd. The teams were deadlocked 24-all athalftime.

The Loyd Star girls, coached by Jan Delaughter, improved to 1-2in the division and 11-4 on the season. Coach Hugh Webb’s Wessongirls fell to 2-2 in division play and 11-6 overall.

The game was close in the first quarter with Wesson taking an11-8 lead. Loyd Star played better defense in the second quarter.Lady Cobra guards Alexis Crosby and Perry K. Furr hit back-to-backfield goals to give the hosts a 6-point, 22-16, lead with 2:27 leftuntil halftime. The Lady Hornets came back to tie the game at24-all on a field goal by Alysha Johnson in the final seconds.

“In the first half, we were pretty sluggish,” said CoachDelaughter. “We played a triangle two (defense) in the second half.We got on the boards. We played a better half. We reboundedbetter.”

Wesson went ahead of Loyd Star 30-28 until Brittany Brown nailedthe Lady Hornet’s only trey of the night for a 31-30 lead. The LadyCobras trailed the visitors the remainder of the game.

In the fourth quarter, Wesson cut the deficit to 5 points,39-35, but Loyd Star center Haley Sones and point guard Laura Britthit a field goal apiece to push their lead to 43-35 with 3:39 leftto play.

Delaughter said she put Shannon Chester and Alysha Johnson onWesson’s Perry K. Furr and Alexis Crosby and cut down on theiroffense in the second half.

“We got them out of their offensive game,” added Delaughter.

Crosby scored 9 of her 12 points in the first half. Furr scoredall 8 of her points in the first half.

“We didn’t show a lot of patience offensively when we were upsix points,” said Coach Webb. “We played like we were six pointsdown. We played them close. We really beat ourselves by not takingcare of the basketball.”

Ann Shelby Davis followed with 7 points, 8 rebounds and 3 stealsfor Wesson. Natasha Brown finished with 5 points and 5 rebounds.According to Webb, Brown returned to the team Jan. 2 afterrecovering from ACL surgery last year.

Powering the Loyd Star girls with 17 points and 9 rebounds wasSones. Chester fired in 11 points, grabbed 5 rebounds and made 3steals. Dakota Brooks and Johnson netted 6 points apiece. Tops offthe backboards was Brooks with 11 rebounds.