WESSON — The Co-Lin Lady Wolves ended their 2-game losingstreak Thursday night with an impressive 81-68 South Division winover the Meridian Lady Eagles in Mullen Gymnasium.

Co-Lin improved to 11-3 on the season and 2-2 in the South.Meridian fell to 12-3 overall and 2-2 in division play.

Tuesday, Co-Lin travels to Perkinston to meet Gulf Coast in adivision doubleheader. The women begin at 6 p.m. followed by themen.

Powering the Lady Wolves to the win was sophomore forwardKristin Ellis of Vicksburg. The 5-foot-11 Ellis led with adouble-double, a game-high 28 points,10 rebounds and 2 steals.

“Ellis had a real good game,” said Co-Lin women’s coach GwynYoung after the win. “We played real well.”

The game was close in the opening minutes. The teams were tied8-all at the 12:45 mark when sophomore forward Alisha Mason hit afield goal that gave Co-Lin a brief 10-8 edge. Meridian came backat the 8:05 mark to tie the game 15-15 for the final time in thegame.

Freshman forward Sondra Moncure of Utica nailed a trey to givethe Lady Wolves an 18-15 lead. In the final 24 seconds of the firsthalf, Co-Lin freshman forward Rhonda Dumas hit a pair of freethrows and teammate TeAirra Wilbert of Hazlehurst scored a bucketat the buzzer to give the hosts an 8-point, 38-30, lead.

“We had good sub play in the first half,” said Young. “Thestarters did a better job in the second half.”

In the second half, Co-Lin pushed its lead to 20 points, 62-42,with 7:26 left to play. A jumper by Ellis lifted the Lady Wolveslead to 65-44 with 7:05 remaining. Meridian didn’t quit and chippeda way at the deficit.

With 2:20 left to play, Meridian guard NaDasha Strickland firedin a field goal to cut the hosts lead to 9 points, 67-58. Co-Linsophomore guard Shalenia Wilcher hit a field goal and teammateReisha Bullock netted a pair of free throws to quickly push theirlead to 71-58.

In the final seconds of the game, Meridian head coach HilaryAllen was out of time outs but called two more. Wilcher went1-for-2 from the charity line with 17.5 seconds left and shot thetechnical fouls to put Co-Lin ahead 81-66. With 4.4 secondsremaining, Allen called another time out and Jalissa Sandifer wentto the free throw line but went 0-for-2. Allen was listed with onetechnical foul in the scorebook.

“We worked our offense better than we have,” added Young. “I waspleased with them.”

Contributing to the Co-Lin win with 10 points was Bullock.Shrica Ward finished with 9 points. Mason collected 7 reboundsfollowed by Wilcher with 6.

Sophomore center Jennifer Ware led Meridian with 22 points and 8rebounds. Strickland followed with 10 points and 5 rebounds. TiaraParker grabbed 8 rebounds.